Judge, Jury,
by oldscout1011
Summary: Post Season 7 of Buffy, Post Season 5 of Angel and OoTP for HP, Buffy discovers the wizarding community and the Ministry of Magic discloses an old law pertaining to the slayer. (Complete)
1. An English Thing

Title: **Judge, Jury,.....**  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of characters. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

**Authors Note**: This story takes place after Season 7 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, after Season 5 of Angel The Series and sometime around book 5 of Harry Potter.

To answer a few questions, this story does reference my Angel series finale stories all posted on Fanfication.net:

**"The Slayer and the Smurf" **

**"Sans Shoes In LA" **

**"The Lawyer, The Slayers, The Smurf, The Key, The Witch, and Neon Green Canvas Sneakers."**

(Referencing the above stories was not my original intention, but that is where my muse took me. My apologies to anybody who has not seen the final season of Angel and wishes to avoid even vague spoilers.)

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time read and review; it is what keeps me interested in continuing.  
  
I would also like to mention the Harry Potter Lexicon (hp-lexicon.org) it has been a great reference to help keep names and basic descriptions correct.  
  
Thanks again to everybody.  
  
OldScout. (7/5/04)

--

**Part 1.  
  
"An English Thing" **

** By OldScout**  
  
Buffy stopped and contemplated what she thought she just saw. She turned her head and looked across the street to confirm but it wasn't there. She knew she saw it, the Slayer in her told her she wasn't imagining it. Continuing to study the buildings on the other side of the street she just couldn't see. Keeping the many shopping bags and packages she carried under control, Buffy did an about-face and started retracing her last few steps. On the third step, the façade of the buildings across the street changed. It was like one of those motion cards found in cereal boxes where the picture would change based on what direction you were looking at it from. With the fourth step, the store front disappeared again. Buffy smiled and took a step backward, the place re-appeared; she loved discovering secrets.  
  
It wasn't the fact that the place had appeared and disappeared that had caught her attention. If it had been just another stupid English pup she wouldn't have noticed. But this was different; the old and faded sign was the silhouette of a witch, pointed hat and all, stirring a large cauldron with the name "The Leaky Cauldron".  
  
After crossing the street, Buffy stood outside The Leaky Cauldron watching the occasional patron come and go. She wondered why nobody noticed these oddly dressed people going in and out of the nearly invisible pub. Then it came to her, they seemed to walk in the shadows and between the blinks of the eye. Unless she really concentrated, she didn't see them until just before they entered or just after they left the pub. Knowing full well Willow and Dawn and everybody would demand more details about The Leaky Cauldron, she adjusted her grip on her bags and stepped in.  
  
The interior of The Leaky Cauldron was dark, lit only by torches, candles, lanterns and the narrow grime covered windows. Being the middle of the afternoon, the place was mostly empty except for the normal bar flies who seemed to haunt all bars or pubs depending on the country. The room looked like it was straight out of 1800s London, or maybe even 1700s London. Buffy wasn't really sure since she was pretty sure they didn't have electricity during either time.  
  
The patrons all wore the same odd clothes or robes as those she'd seen coming and going earlier. Every conversation stopped as people turned and looked at the American with her large load of shopping bags, bright prink top and knee length jean skirt.  
  
"Can I help you Miss?" The bartender asked.  
  
Buffy turned on her best California Blond smile. "What's good to drink? I am sooo thirsty." She drew out the word "so" doing her best imitation of herself at fifteen.  
  
"How about a butter beer?" the man offered, returning her bright smile.  
  
"Do you have anything non-alcoholic? Me and beer have a bad history."  
  
"Never heard of butter beer?" he asked dismayed.  
  
"It must be an English thing." Buffy chirped. "Maybe we call it something different in the states."  
  
"Well don't worry; it's non-alcoholic." The man poured a large frosted tankard and pushed it across the bar to Buffy. "That'll be 7 sickles."  
  
Buffy smiled. "Ah, I've been shopping all afternoon." She pointed to the multitude of bags she had just stacked on a table. "And everything was pounds and pence. Where'd sickles all of a sudden come from?"  
  
"I've never been to the Colonies before, but I'm sure their Wizarding community has its own currency apart from muggle currency just like we do."  
  
"Well duh." Buffy declared in her best 'I'm so stupid.' Valley Girl tone; then gave her well rehearsed and often used 'can you do me a favor' frown. "Can you take," she paused not sure if she should make the connection she was about to. "muggle money?"  
  
The bartender hesitated for a second then said. "We try not to, but since we are a gateway establishment we do occasionally. Of course I can't give you the rate of exchange as Gringots would."  
  
"Thank you." Buffy said with another bright smile as she handed the man some currency. He took two pounds and handed Buffy back some odd looking coins. She pocketed the coins with only a cursory glance figuring she could examine them in detail after she left.  
  
Buffy gathered up her packages and took everything to an empty table in the far corner of the old dining room.  
  
--  
  
Tom the bartender looked at the strange American sitting in the back of the room. The way he figured it, she was either a muggle or a very ditzy American witch. If she was a muggle, then she was very adaptive and not nearly as ditzy as she was acting which had him concerned.  
  
"Matilda." He called to the middle aged witched who waited tables for him in the afternoons. "Can you watch the bar? I've got to take care of some things."  
  
It only took a few minutes to make the flu call to the Ministry. They said somebody would be right over. If this girl was a muggle, they would have to get her out of the Cauldron and put a memory spell on her. An Auror would come and question the young woman and make the determination.  
  
--  
  
The place was fascinating, and the butter beer was delicious. Buffy sat in the back of the pub watching these strange robe wearing people come and go. The best she could figure was that there was a whole community of witches and wizards living in England, with their own money and shops and everything. The bartender had mentioned something about an American Wizarding community. Buffy wondered if there were places like this in America. Definitely not Sunnydale, she definitely would have noticed. Of course, she didn't have a clue about the dark magic users Willow fell in with until it was too late. So perhaps....  
  
Buffy's mental babbling stopped when she saw a new person come in the back door where most of the traffic actually came from. This was a young woman, about Buffy's age with wild neon red hair and expensive looking robes. The woman glanced at the bartended who responded by almost imperceptibly nodding toward Buffy.  
  
"Great, a copper." Buffy said to herself with a smile. "I've been ratted out by the bartender."

**To be continued......**


	2. Tonks a lot

See chapter 1 for disclaimers.

**Part 2 **

** by OldScout**

Buffy looked away from the bar before the woman turned toward her. She wanted to at least pretend she hadn't seen the exchange between her and the bartender.  
  
"Mind if I join you?"  
  
Buffy looked at the new comer, not only did she have bright red hair, but she had electric blue eyes that seemed to glow. "Not at all," Buffy replied turning on her brightest smile and motioning to one of the chairs that did not contain packages.  
  
--

As Tonks approached the American she had seen her look away from the exchange at the bar. So she knew she was here for a reason and was trying to pretend not to. Tonks held out her hand as she sat down "I'm Nymphadora Tonks." She saw the woman's eyes widen a bit. "Everyone just calls me Tonks."  
  
The woman grasped her hand and maintained her smile "Don't worry about the name, my parents named me Buffy."  
  
"Buffy....?" Tonks led for the rest of the name.  
  
"Oh, Buffy, Buffy Summers that's me." She said with a bright smile. "What can I do for you, Tonks?" and took another sip of butter beer. Did she deliberately leave a touch of foam on her lips?  
  
"Ah, my friend Tom at the bar there told me there was an American visiting and he knows how I've always wanted to visit the states." Tonks lied. "He figured I might like meeting you."  
  
"Cool. Hey, would you like one?" She pointed to the nearly empty butter beer.  
  
"Well..."  
  
"Great." Buffy held up tankard for Tom to see and 2 fingers. Tom nodded and started pouring. "So tell me, what's the what out back? I see most people coming and going through the back door."  
  
Tonks still had no idea if this was a witch or a muggle. If she was a muggle, then she was familiar with magic if she was a witch then things were just different in the States. "That's the entrance to Diagon Alley, shops for the local witches and wizards." Tonks figured if this was a muggle, she already had to do a memory spell; might as well just go with it until she was sure one way or the other.  
  
Buffy's face lit up again. "Shopping? That's my favorite past time." As she spoke, Tom delivered the two butter beers and Buffy handed him some pound notes and dropped the change on the table.  
  
"So where are from in the States?" Tonks tried to maintain her cover story. "I've always wanted to visit Salem."  
  
"I grew up in California, never been to Salem, you know, wrong coast and all. Now most of my friends are in Cleveland." She thought for a second. "I've got a friend who grew up in Boston, I wonder if she's ever been to Salem."  
  
"Is she a witch?"  
  
"My friend from Boston?" A visible shutter seemed to go through the American. "God no, we had enough trouble with her as it was. So you came in from Diagon Alley, do you work in one of the shops? Maybe you can show me around, I still need to find something cool for my sister's birthday. She loves magic jewelry like amulets and stuff. Hey, do they have a book store? My friend Giles is trying to rebuild his library."  
  
Tonks just stared wide eyed as the woman went on about magical stuff she wanted to buy. If this was a muggle, she might not know of the wizarding world, but she was very familiar with magic. "Why does he need to rebuild his library? Did he have a fire?"  
  
"No.." she hesitated for a second. "He lost it in an earth quake."  
  
"I suppose I could give you the 5 knute tour." Tonks said then gestured at the packages. "You could leave these here with Tom, I'm sure they'd be safe." She figured it wouldn't take long to decide Buffy's status and make a decision once they started shopping. It would be nearly impossible for a muggle to hide her reaction to the sites of Diagon Alley.  
  
"Cool." Buffy took one last gulp of her butter beer, finally wiped the foam from her lip, stood up and started gathering her packages.  
  
As the women headed out of the pub, one of the regulars who had been seated near Buffy didn't need any more time to decide. He and his associates would take care of this nosey muggle and teach the stupid Auror a lesson in how to deal with muggles who didn't know their place.

to be continued....................


	3. Charge It

**Part 3.  
Charge It  
By OldScout.**  
  
"That's just too cool." Buffy said as the brick wall opened up to reveal Diagon Alley.  
  
Tonks was trying not to frown. She was going to have Buffy open the wall (if she had a wand) but they timed it just right to catch somebody coming in to the Cauldron. Before she could stop her and show her how it worked, Buffy was already through.  
  
Buffy grinned to herself suspecting that the magical wall was a last defense for keeping muggles out of Diagon Alley. As soon as she saw it open, she knew she had to take the opportunity and slipped into the Alley. Now she just had to stay one step ahead of her sitter. The first sign she saw was 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'. Buffy uttered her second favorite shopping phrase next to 'Charge It!' "Ooh, clothes," and headed for Madam Malkins.  
  
Tonks finally caught up to her in Madam Malkin's. She was standing in front of a full length mirror holding up a green dress robe.  
  
"What do you think?" Buffy asked. "Does it bring out the color in my eyes?" Buffy thought the robe was hideous; she just wanted to see Tonks's reaction.  
  
Before she could answer, Tonks watched as the American's attention was caught by something else and she dropped the robe across the rack and headed to the back of the store. She picked up a tall purple wizard hat with moons and stars on it and started laughing. "I swear, this looks just like the one Giles was wearing once." She looked around and found the matching robe. "Oh my God, this has got to be it. Wait till I tell Willow, he never would say where got the hideous thing."  
  
"A hum," the seams-witch interrupted. "That happens to be a very popular style for today's distinguished Wizard."  
  
Buffy grinned widely trying not to laugh. "Of course, but boy did it look hideous on Giles. You know he's all tweed and everything this just didn't work."  
  
"Is your friend Giles a wiz......?"  
  
Before Tonks finished her question Buffy had dropped the purple robe and was headed to another part of the store while exclaiming "Ooh, shoes."  
  
Watching Tonks in one of the dressing mirrors rushing to keep up Buffy smiled. She was having a lot of fun channeling her fifteen year old self, it had been a long time since she allowed herself to let loose like this. She wondered if Tonks was catching on to the act yet. She looked over the ugly pointed toe, ankle high witch boots in all different shades of black. No other color, just black. Buffy picked up the ugliest one she could find. "Do you have this in yellow?"  
  
The seams-witch pulled out her wand and tapped the shoe, turning it to a bright yellow. It was all Buffy could do not to stare open mouthed at the wand. This was the first bit of magic she'd actually seen anybody perform. After a second to collect her self, Buffy held up the shoe and looked at if from all directions. "Nope, still ugly." She handed the shoe back to the seams-witch. "Thanks, maybe I'll find something another time." She headed out the door.  
  
Just outside the shop, Buffy stopped in her tracks causing Tonks to nearly run into her. "What's wrong?" Buffy pointed to Gringots bank. "Tom said I should change my muggle money into wizard money. Do you think they're still open?"  
  
"Gringots never closes."  
  
"Cool." Buffy was on the move again.  
  
It was all Tonks could do to keep up with her. She wasn't running but the woman seemed to have a sixth sense for weaving her way through a crowd. The incident with the shoe made Tonks pretty sure Buffy was a muggle, any real witch would know how to change shoe colors, that's why they only came in black. Tonks couldn't help herself; she just wanted to see what the flighty American would do next.  
  
After the bank, Buffy seemed to actually get serious about her shopping. Her next stop was Fourish and Botts Book Shop.  
  
An hour later they left the book store with Buffy carrying three bags of books. One bag seemed to move on its own, as if something was trying to get out.  
  
"I still don't know why you need two copies of the Monster Book of Monsters." Tonks was actually afraid she did know why. They had spent half an hour watching the books fight in the display case. Buffy had spent the whole time enthusiastically cheering on one of the copies she had ended up buying.  
  
"One for Dawn and one for Willow. Those books just remind me too much of the way those two act when it comes to sharing supplies."  
  
"Okay, Dawn's your sister, I got that and you mentioned Willow before, is she the one from Boston?" Thankfully Buffy was now strolling at leisurely pace, finally allowing Tonks to actually ask some questions.  
  
"No Faith is the one from Boston, but Willow's my best friend, she's the witch."  
  
"So you're not a witch."  
  
Buffy looked a little sheepish. "Guess not."  
  
"And Dawn?"  
  
"Willow's been teaching her some things, but we have to be careful, we had some really bad experiences when Willow was learning. I don't want Dawn to go through that as well. I figured it was better for Willow to teach her proper control early because if she didn't Dawn would just go and figure it out on her own and that's how Willow got in to trouble."  
  
Tonks turned and stared at the woman walking beside her. Just like that the ditzy blond was gone. This was a mature woman in control of her world. "Why don't you send her to...."  
  
Buffy suddenly stopped and stared in a window. "Ooh, jewelry."  
  
Both women were suddenly in Lady Periwinkles Charms and Jewelry for the Discriminating Buyer. "Can I help you ladies?" The sales witch smiled at them. She was an attractive woman in her early thirties with waist length dark brown hair just starting to gray at the temples. Instead of the standard wizarding robes, she wore a white cotton peasant blouse with a floor length cotton skirt. Every finger had at least two rings, and she wore several bracelets on each wrist. She wore multiple necklaces, a waist chain and both her ears were pierced multiple times. There was even a chain connecting her right ear to a ring in her nose.  
  
"I'm looking for something special for my sister." Buffy said sweetly.  
  
"Younger or older?"  
  
"Younger, late teens."  
  
"What does she like, any preferences? Style, does she have pierced ears or is anything else pierced?"  
  
Buffy tried real hard to not glare at the woman for the 'anything else' comment. They were talking about her 'little' sister. "Something old perhaps; maybe with a unique but harmless charm on it."  
  
"Ah, over here." The witch led them to a display case in the back of the store. "All of these objects are purported to have charms on them. Since not all charms are the result of wizarding magic, I haven't been able verify if the charm actually exists on all of the pieces."  
  
As Buffy studied the pieces, Tonks and the sales witch were inspecting earrings or were they nose rings in another case. As Buffy reached out to pick up an intricately carved silver bracelet, the clear stone in the bracelet next to it glowed bright white for a second then faded. Buffy pulled out the simple fixed band silver bracelet with a clear stone in the middle. "What does this one do?"  
  
"Ah, that is an interesting piece. It was made by Gypsies and it is said that the crystal will glow red if there is a vampire near by. The closer the vampire, the brighter it will glow. But since I do not know where there are any tame vampires to test it, I can't say if it actually works. The few tests we've performed on it indicate that there is some sort of charm on the bracelet, but we haven't been able to verify its true nature."  
  
Buffy handed it to Tonks and watched for the reaction, nothing. "How much?" She asked as Tonks examined the piece.  
  
The witch quoted a price and Buffy's rough math told her that it was about 60 pounds sterling. She knew she only had about 60 pounds left and still needed to get a cab back to headquarters. "I don't have near that much in wizard money; all I've got is muggle. Will you take 45 pounds for it?"  
  
"I don't know, that's a pretty rare piece. Gypsy charms can be pretty powerful. Plus at the current rate of exchange, that's quite a discount."  
  
"How long has it been sitting in that case?" Buffy asked. "That felt looks pretty worn to its shape. It's not doing you any good just sitting there."  
  
The witch smiled. "The best I can do is 50 pounds. Even then I'm barely breaking even."  
  
"Okay, I can do that." Buffy said and shook the witch's hand. Tonks tried to hand it back to Buffy. "Can you wrap it for me?" Buffy asked as she dug her wallet from the bag/purse she carried slung over her shoulder. Buffy motioned for Tonks to hand the bracelet to the sales witch; the last thing she wanted was for them to see the thing react when it got near her.  
  
It was starting to get to be dinner time when the women left Lady Periwinkles. "Perhaps we better get going." Buffy said. "I think I've used up enough of your time."  
  
"No problem." Tonks replied still at a loss as to what to do with this muggle.  
  
"So do I pass muster?"  
  
Tonks stopped in mid stride and stared at the woman.  
  
"Well I assumed you came to check me out to make sure I wasn't just some wayward American tourist who took a wrong turn or something."  
  
"You knew?"  
  
"You didn't think I was really that.." Buffy looked at the lengthening shadows. "We've got company." Buffy let her bags drop to the ground as hooded figures dressed all in black and wearing white masks detached themselves from the shadows of near by buildings.  
  
To be continued........... 


	4. Aurors, Like Me

**Part 4.  
"Aurors, Like Me"  
By OldScout**  
  
"You've got to be kidding me." Buffy said looking at the newcomers. "That getup was getting old with Scream 2."  
  
"They're Death Eaters." Tonks whispered quickly as she drew her wand. "They hate muggles and want to rid the world of them."  
  
Tonks pushed herself between Buffy and the apparent leader. "Go back to your master; she is not what you think she is."  
  
"You infected our sanctuary with a muggle." The leader hissed. "You will pay the same price as her."  
  
"She's not a muggle." Tonks lied. "She's a squib."  
  
"What's a squid?" Buffy asked in a normal conversation voice.  
  
"Quiet." Tonks hissed. If Buffy would just be quiet, she might be able talk their way out of this.  
  
"Enough!" The leader said.  
  
Tonks heard several voices at the same time. "Crucio!" Her first thought was to push Buffy out of the way, this wasn't her fight, she was an innocent. But instead she felt a solid body hit against her.  
  
Four Death Eaters fired their curses at the same time, two at each woman. The muggle took three of the four curses when she pushed the Auror out of the way. One of the curses still found its mark with Tonks and both women fell to the ground screaming in pain.  
  
The five Death Eaters surrounded their victims. "Take care of the traitor first." One of them said as they all focused on Tonks. They didn't notice the muggle had stopped screaming.  
  
Five wands pointed at Tonks, five Crucios were on the tips of five tongues when somebody interrupted.  
  
"Like ouch, that really hurt." An annoyed female voice complained from outside the group. The petite blond female muggle stood with hands on her hips staring at the group of Death Eaters. She then glanced down at her bright pink top that was now dirty and torn from landing on the cobble stone road and rolling under the group of attackers. "And look what you made me do to my new top, I just bought this yesterday."  
  
Tonks grit her teeth as the curse started to wear off. The curse must have just glanced her she knew that a full on Crucio from wizards as powerful as Death Eaters lasted a lot longer then that. The pain had subsided just enough so she could stop screaming and concentrate on what was happening around her. Was that Buffy talking? How was that possible? She had seen her take three maybe four Crucios dead on. People were known to die of heart failure caused by just two simultaneous Crucio curses.  
  
Buffy grit her teeth and glared at the monsters, no attackers, they were humans, weren't they? The pain racked her body but she was able to disassociate from it. It was far less then the pain of being skewered during the battle with The First, and she knew no physical damage was done this time.  
  
Wands started to point her way, but this time Buffy knew better. A quick kick at nearest sent his wand flying across the street then Buffy stepped into the middle of group surrounding Tonks. An elbow to a face, broke a Death Eater's jaw, while a good swift round house dropped another. Buffy grabbed another and tossed him down the street with a satisfying crack when he landed indicating the breaking of a bone. Soon all five Death Eaters were scattered around the Alley and a small crowd had gathered at either end to watch.  
  
Buffy knelt next to Tonks and caressed her cheek. "Tonks, don't worry, you'll be okay." She looked down the Alley at the spectators. "Somebody get help! Please!"  
  
Something moved. Buffy looked down the street to see one of the Death Eaters she had thrown away standing up she stood to face him. He pointed his wand at her. "Avada Kedavra."  
  
Buffy rolled out of the way and stood to face him again. "You miss.." she began to taunt when somebody screamed and started crying while somebody else gasp in disbelief "The killing curse!"  
  
With two more Death Eaters climbing to their feet Buffy looked to where the scream had come from. At the end of the alley a small body lay motionless with a woman kneeling over him crying.  
  
The Death Eater swung his wand at the muggle while she was distracted by the collateral damage. He paused surprised by the glare of anger coming from the American, but could it be? There was no fear. "Avada.." but the woman was gone and something hit him in the chest.  
  
Buffy glared at the MONSTER as it swung its little wand at her to try the curse again. She needed all her speed to bridge the gap between her and it before any more innocents died. It was a monster, but it was soft like a human. Its chest collapsed from the flying kick she landed when she reached it. The strength of the kick and momentum of the run sent the creature flying across the alley hitting the old stone wall with a terrifying crunch as almost every bone in its body shattered.  
  
The two remaining mobile Death Eaters where just re-gaining their senses. As Buffy turned to them; the furthest one was already pointing his wand at her. Buffy pulled a knife from a sheath on her back and threw it. Before he could say a single word, the Death Eater's masked shattered as the knife slammed into his forehead .  
  
The final Death Eater watched his companion die and turned to the muggle just in time to see her approach. The look in her eyes gave him his final thought. "I don't want to die."  
  
Buffy walked up to the last monster, side stepped its wand, kneed it in the stomach and caught it by the head as it fell. With a satisfying crunch she gave the head a twist and felt bone and muscle break as she forced the head into an unnatural 180 degree turn.  
  
Leaning on one hand, Tonks fought the effects of the Crucio and watched as Buffy nearly twisted the head off of the remaining Death Eater. As she turned back to Tonks, the steel in the woman's eyes disappeared replaced with concern and a slight grin.  
  
"You're going to be fine." Buffy assured Tonks as she knelt down next to her.  
  
"I know." Tonks replied softly. "I've been hit with that curse before. She looked at Buffy. "But never three."  
  
Suddenly the alley was filled with popping sounds. Buffy looked up to see more black robed figures without masks appearing out of thin air. Buffy took a defensive stance over Tonks but could feel her pulling at her leg.  
  
"No Buffy, they're Aurors, like me. They're here to help."  
  
To be continued................. 


	5. Who Is This Woman?

**Authors Note:** I just want to thank everybody who has taken the time to review this story. In all my years of writting Fan Fiction I have never received so much response, it really is addictive.  
Thanks again.  
OldScout.  
  
-----------------------------------

****

**Part 5.  
"Who Is This Woman?"**

** by OldScout**

"You should have known better then to take a muggle to Diagon Alley." Kingsley Shacklebolt was trying not to raise his voice to Tonks.  
  
"I didn't know she was a muggle." Tonks replied. "That's what I was trying to find out." She looked over her shoulder to make sure nobody was near. She wasn't supposed to talk about this with anybody before the official debriefing. "She knew enough already and would have found her way to Diagon Alley on her own."  
  
"It doesn't matter." Kingsley shot back still not succeeding in keep his voice low. He clenched his teeth and turned away, pretending they weren't having a conversation.  
  
After a couple of minutes Tonks asked. "What do you think they're doing with Buffy?"  
  
"As far as I know, she's still waiting in an interrogation room for Director Bones and a lawyer."  
  
Tonks shook her head. "I still can't believe they're treating her this way. Those guys were all about to Crucio me and she stopped them. I owe her my life."  
  
"Their families and lawyers are already claiming they were under the Imperious curse."  
  
It was all Tonks could do to not to laugh out loud. "They always claim that. Not one Death Eater has ever claimed joining under his own free will. What loyalty of convictions."  
  
"I don't know.." Kingsley stopped as somebody approached.  
  
The large frame of Auror Dawlish was suddenly standing over them. "Auror Tonks, please come with me." He immediately walked away.  
  
--  
  
The Ministry of Magic had ten levels known to the general magical community. The largest area of level two held the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Of the many sections of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, one was the Hallway of Interrogation. The Hallway of Interrogation had exactly 71 rooms, all unoccupied except one. Room Delta PI was the only room currently in use; it contained exactly four objects: two plain white chairs, one plain white table and one very bored Buffy.  
  
To most, a bored Buffy was most un-remarkable. In fact, Buffys were easily bored outside of their native habitat. In most cases the natural range for a Buffy was Southern California with the preferred habitat being shopping malls and beaches. Since London England was not natural Buffy habitat, the officials currently on duty at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were totally unaware exactly how bored the current occupant of room Delta Pi was. Of course being bureaucrats in law enforcement they would not have expressed great amounts of concern for the boredom of any guest occupying a room in the Hallway of Interrogation.  
  
This particular Buffy was not an average Buffy for she was also a Vampire Slayer; usually referred to simply as a Slayer. Now at one time Slayers were extremely rare, in fact for most of known history through out the whole world there was only one Slayer at a time. Several years ago this particular statistic changed when through a fluke of fate, the number of Slayers doubled when a second Slayer was chosen when the current Slayer died briefly. There were currently even more slayers around, but the actual number of current slayers wasn't really relevant to the situation of the Slayer in question.  
  
Slayers were very unique creatures endowed with all the abilities required to fight vampires, demons, and other forces of evil and darkness. These abilities included enhanced strength, speed, and fast healing along with heightened senses and a sixth sense to help them identify threats and sources of evil. To maintain all the strength, speed and other extras, Slayers also had a high metabolism and large reserves of energy. These large reserves of energy where the main reason why it was not generally a good idea to allow a Slayer to be bored for too long.  
  
--  
  
Buffy sat quietly with eyes closed meditating. If she'd known they'd have her sitting in here cooling her heals for so long, she would have asked for a pillow. They had taken everything from her, her purse, all her packages even Mr. Pointy which was concealed in the bottom of her purse. Those Aurors were not very pleasant, if it hadn't been for Tonks assuring her she was perfectly safe she wouldn't have cooperated. It could have gotten messy; they seemed like a stubborn bunch.  
  
Movement caught her attention as the thing in an upper corner of the room shifted position. Soon after being parked here, Buffy had noticed a small device floating in the corner of the room. After staring at it for several minutes, the device moved to a different wall when Buffy immediately changed her stare to follow it, the thing moved back to its original position where it had remained since. Buffy turned and stared at the object long enough for them to know she saw it then sat straight in her seat again and closed her eyes. Buffy started tapping an index finger on the table. For those watching, if they knew they were watching a Slayer and knew of Slayers, they would know this was not a good sign.  
  
"I still can't believe she can see the observer." A middle aged woman said watching the image in the Observer Glass in front of her. She was Director Amelia Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.  
  
"Not only that," Dawlish added. "I believe she had her eyes closed when it moved."  
  
"Move it directly in front of her, I want to see her face again."  
  
Dawlish tapped the Observer Glass with his wand and the view changed as the Observer swung around the room and slid down the wall showing the woman's calm face, long blond hair and closed eyes.  
  
As soon as the object stopped, Buffy opened her eyes, stared at it for a few seconds, smiled, winked and closed her eyes again.  
  
"That's not possible." Director Bones said pushing her chair away from the Observer Glass. "Nobody can see the Observer when it's activated, it's guaranteed."  
  
"Perhaps this is Nobody." A voice said from across the room.  
  
"Minister Fudge." Director Bones said and smiled in greeting as she stood to face the Minister of Magic. "I thought you had gone home for the day."  
  
"We've got three dead Death Eaters, two more in custody for attacking an Auror and a muggle being held in connection to the whole incident." He glared at the woman. "You didn't expect me to come back in?" He turned to the figure sitting quietly in the far corner of the room. "You were involved in this incident Auror Tonks?" It was more a statement then a question.  
  
"Yes, Sir." Tonks replied as she stood to face the Minister.  
  
"And what is your opinion of the woman?"  
  
"If Auror Tonks had a relevant opinion," Director Bones interjected. "We wouldn't be in this mess."  
  
"Director Bones, It was not your opinion I was seeking enlightenment on. I will let you know if and when I ever require it." Minister Fudge turned back to Tonks.  
  
"Auror Tonks, if you would care to enlighten me on your opinion of one Buffy Summers, I would greatly appreciate it."  
  
There was dead silence as Tonks tried to collect her thoughts. "She's not part of the Wizarding community." Tonks started.  
  
"Humph, that's for sure." Director Bones sniffed.  
  
"Director, I made it clear I am not interested in your opinion on this matter, and I also want to make it perfectly clear that I am also not interested in your editorial an the subject as well." Minister Fudge turned back to Tonks. "Please continue."  
  
"Though she clearly is not part of the Community," Tonks continued. "She obviously had exposure to magical influences. I was trying to determine if she was perhaps a squib with every right participate in Diagon Alley or had some other connections that allowed her access. From conversations with her, she admitted to having a friend that is a witch as well as a sister who displays some magical abilities. She also has another friend, I believe male, who may be a Wizard."  
  
Minister Fudge nodded. "Go on, what about her, do you trust her?"  
  
"I think so." Tonks admitted. "For most of our time in Diagon Alley she was acting very flighty; her shopping technique was more like that of a young child in a candy store then an adult woman." Tonks smiled. "Near the end though she changed and started acting more mature. She admitted to knowing I was there to test her and to be being a muggle."  
  
"Is this just before the Death Eaters attacked?"  
  
"Yes, that's when it happened."  
  
"Can you have Miss Summers's personal items and purchases brought in?" Minister Fudge said to Auror Dawlish.  
  
"Sir, I beg your pardon." Director Bones said. "But all items have already been categorized and inventoried for the investigation which my department is more then capable of handling. I do not see why you need to be directly involved."  
  
"Madam Director," Fudge replied. "If you saw why I needed to be directly involved in this matter, you would not have made that comment. If YOU wish to remain involved, do not question me again."  
  
Within minutes the room's large conference table was covered with items separated into three categories; personal items taken directly from Miss Summers, the purchases she had made in Diagon Alley which were mostly books except for a small plain silver bracelet, and a stack of muggle items left with Tom at the Leaky Cauldron.  
  
"Auror Tonks, one more thing from you before I have another assignment for you." Fudge pointed to the table. "As a woman of approximately the same age, and an experienced Auror and the only person to have had a genial conversation with Miss Summers," Fudge glared on Director Bones with the last comment. "What are your thoughts and opinions about Miss Summers's possessions and purchases?"  
  
Tonks walked up to the table and looked at all the items. "I feel like I'm invading a friend's privacy." Tonks muttered as she looked at all of the stuff.  
  
"This is your job Auror Tonks, remember you've only known this woman for a few hours and during most of that time she was apparently hiding her true nature from you. Not the stuff of true friendship."  
  
Crossing her arms, Tonks stared at the pile of muggle purchases. The first group was six pairs of shoes. Three were identical styles only different colors; two of which were different shades of blue. The fourth pair of shoes were sneakers, running shoes to be exact and the sixth pair were sturdy work boots with steel toes. Tonks pointed to the dress shoes. "She's obviously not part of the Wizarding community or closely associated. If she was, she would have only bought one pair of that style, the color is easy enough to change with magic." She smiled, "Also, this woman either has an extreme sense of style, more money then sense or shoe fetish because I can't see buying three pair of the same shoe especially with colors that close." She looked at the insides of the shoes, "And yes, all six pair are the same size."  
  
Tonks looked at the stack of clothes and really didn't see anything to comment on so she moved to the books bought in Diagon Alley. "I was with her when she bought these; I can tell you what she told me about them so it is hard for me theorize anything different." She pointed to the two securely bound wiggling copies of the Monster Book of Monsters. "She claimed these two books are for her best friend and her sister, who seem to have a friendly rivalry about sharing their resources. However, I do believe she derived some kind of joy out of watching the books fight." Tonks grinned at the memory of Buffy's child like fascination with watching the books fighting.  
  
Next Tonks pointed to two extremely old Demonology books. "These two books Miss Summers had a long conversation with one of the book store owners about. She was very concerned about their authenticity and wanted to be sure she could return them if they turned out to be imitations of even translations of originals."  
  
"She was concerned about translations?" Minister Fudge asked. "What languages are they in?"  
  
Tonks pointed at one. "Apparently this one is in some sort of ancient Sumerian dialect and the other claims to be a direct transcription of scrolls found in a northern province of Romania."  
  
"You were not concerned that a woman who was acting like such a.." Fudge looked at his notes "'Ditz' was interested in such translations?"  
  
"I was already having my doubts about her act, this just added to them." Tonks pointed to the stack of lesser books. "These she grabbed with little comment, she had mentioned rebuilding a friend's library and I got the impression these were books she was familiar with."  
  
Fudge nodded after her last comment and Tonks picked up the bracelet. "This she said is a gift for her sister. Lady Periwinkle said it would detect vampires by glowing red when they are near, but couldn't prove it since she didn't have access to any vampires." Tonks looked up at the Minister. "You know, it's odd. She spent a lot time dickering over the books and getting guarantees and promises of return but never questioned this piece's pedigree, she just accepted every thing she was told."  
  
Still holding the bracelet, Tonks looked at the next set of items. All the personal items from Buffy's purse were laid out next. She picked up the finely carved wooden stake, holding it in one hand and the bracelet in the other. Carved around the top of the handle was 'Mr Pointy III". Tonks read aloud. "Mister Pointy the third." She looked back at the Minister "Who is this woman?"  
  
Minister Fudged looked back at the Observer Glass. Buffy still had her eyes closed and was sitting straight and still except all the fingers on her right hand were now tapping out a nervous rhythm on the table. "She's your next assignment. Go talk to her."  
  
"People have already tried getting information, she's not talking."  
  
"I don't care what you talk about. Just keep her occupied. Tell her anything. Tell her about your child hood, regale her with stories of your wonder years at Hogwarts, tell her dirty limericks, show her magic tricks. It doesn't matter. Keep her occupied until I hear back from the American Ministry of Magic."  
  
"Yes Sir." And Tonks headed out of the office to the Hallway of Interrogation and the one occupied room.  
  
To be continued.......


	6. Thank You Very Much

**Part 6.  
"Thank You Very Much." **

** By OldScout**  
  
"Hey, Tonks, how ya doing?" Buffy asked when the young Auror came into the interrogation room. Buffy sat back in her chair, put her feet on the chair opposite her and pushed it away from the table. "Have a seat."  
  
Tonks stared at the woman. Most people left to sit in these little rooms on those uncomfortable chairs would be mad as hell right now; demanding lawyers, and due process and everything. Buffy was behaving like she'd been sitting there for a few minutes, not several hours.  
  
As Tonks took her seat Buffy asked. "Can you tell me two things, who is watching me on that camera thing that's flying around here and where to get one?"  
  
"Director Bones, Auror Dawlish and probably Minister Fudge are monitoring the Observer right now."  
  
"Cool. Can they hear me too?"  
  
Tonks nodded.  
  
Buffy turned to face the corner where she felt she was being watched from. "Listen up people." She said without raising her voice. "Let's get this show on the road I have things to do and my friends will start missing me. You don't want them to have to come get me; they're not big on surgical strikes." With that she turned back to Tonks and smiled sweetly. "So really how are you after that what did you call it? Crucio curse? It seemed to hit you pretty hard."  
  
"Ah, I'm fine, the medi-witch gave me an antidote..." Tonks stopped just now thinking about what Buffy had said. "What did you mean 'Not big on surgical strikes'?"  
  
"Well, you know, when you remove something surgically you go in, be real careful, do as little damage as possible, blah, blah, blah. When you remove something non-surgically, you start hacking your way through not caring about how much damage you do and junk. Plus surgery takes a lot of planning and stuff and I doubt they're going be that patient." Buffy continued smiling sweetly. "If you want to give them a call, and let them know what's going on it might prevent a lot of trouble."  
  
"Call?" Tonks thought for a second. "Oh, right, a muggle telephone. I don't think we have one here, somebody who knows how to do use one will have to go up to the street."  
  
"The number is in on my business card in my wallet." Buffy said turning to where she felt the observer move to. "Do you think they'll call?"  
  
"I don't know, usually it's up to the defenses advocate to contact family."  
  
"Advocate, you mean lawyer?"  
  
Tonks nodded.  
  
"And when am I supposed to get one of these advocates?"  
  
"I don't know. They've been trying to find somebody but everybody's afraid of retribution from the Death Eaters and who they serve."  
  
"Oh." Buffy stared on Tonks for a second. "So do you think they're going to make the phone call?"  
  
"I doubt it."  
  
"I was afraid of that that." Buffy continued to stare at Tonks and after a couple of seconds started tapping the table again. "So now what?"  
  
"Well I guess I'm supposed to keep you occupied until Minister Fudge gets some information he's waiting for."  
  
"How are you supposed to do that?"  
  
"Minister Fudged mentioned either telling you stories about Hogwarts or reciting dirty limericks."  
  
Buffy stared at Tonks for several moments. "What's Hogwarts?"  
  
"Whew." Tonks smiled. "I don't really know that many dirty limericks."  
  
--  
  
"She threatened us." Director Bones said in disbelief. "Did she really just threaten us, The Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement? She obviously has no idea who she's dealing with."  
  
"Maybe she's delusional?" Auror Dawlish suggested.  
  
"There's obviously something wrong with her." Minister Bones agreed. "Why else would she kill three people like that, it was absolutely not called for."  
  
"What's that?" Minister Fudge asked looking up from the conference table where he was studying Buffy's things.  
  
"Miss Summers said that if we didn't let her go soon, her friends would come to get her and do a lot of damage in the process."  
  
"Pish." Fudged waived his hand at the two. "I don't care who this girl is, there are so many charms, protection spells and trained Aurors around the Ministry that even You-Know-Who and all of his Death Eaters combined couldn't get in."  
  
Just then Director Bones's assistant came into the room. "Minister Fudge," she said from the doorway. "A courier from the American Ministry of Magic and the Supernatural is here to see you in your office."  
  
"I'll be right out." Fudge replied.  
  
"Why do they have Supernatural in their name?" Dawlish asked. He'd always wondered but never had reason to ask somebody who might know.  
  
"I think it has to do with their damn Hellmouths, always gotta rub peoples' noses in it."  
  
"Hellmouth."  
  
"What?" Fudge was half way to the door.  
  
"Remember, one collapsed." Director Bones replied.  
  
"Serves them right, baring the international magical community from them, as if given time we couldn't train Aurors to handle the dark forces there."  
  
--  
  
Minister Fudge followed the assistant back to his office where the courier was waiting. The wizard look to be in his mid thirties, slightly heavy set and stood just under two meters tall. The wizard wore a long traditional purple wizarding robe decorated with crescent moons and stars with a matching odd flat hat with a wide brim. Fudge contemplated the hat for a second then noticed the odd matching boots, ah, a cowboy.  
  
"Minister Fudge," The wizard said with a voice louder then Fudge was used to. "I'm Auror Billy Bob Hicklock from the American Ministry of Magic and the Supernatural."  
  
"I'm glad you could come so quickly, Auror Hicklock." Fudge said in greeting.  
  
"Billy Bob."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Please, call me Billy Bob, you start talking to Auror Hicklock and I start looking for my Ma."  
  
"Yes, of course." Fudge tried not to frown. "So, Bill Bob," Fudge squeezed the name(s) out like there was something stuck to the roof of his mouth. "I hope your journey was uneventful." As he spoke Minister Fudge walked to his chair behind his desk and motioned for Billy Bob to have a seat in the guest chair in front.  
  
"Well the floo from my home in Toledo to Salem was nauseating as usual but the Ministry transatlantic port key is a very refined way to travel." Billy Bob replied with a large smile.  
  
"I hear ya'all have one of our nationals here." Billy Bob continued and opened a thin muggle envelope taking out a muggle photograph, handing it to Minister Fudge.  
  
It was a picture of Buffy Summers taken from a distance and enlarged so she filled the frame. She looked to be in her mid to late teens so the picture was obviously several years old. "That's her, but she's older now."  
  
"Yes, of course, but that's the best we have."  
  
"Would you like more? We have plenty of footage from the Observer in the interrogation room." Fudge asked smugly.  
  
Billy Bob seemed to pale. "Does she know you're recording her?"  
  
"I would assume so since she's been mugging and making faces at the Observer. Which brings me to my first question; how can she see the Observer? It is guaranteed to be invisible to any witch, wizard or muggle."  
  
"My guess is that she can't see it," Billy Bob replied. "I think she can sense it watching her."  
  
"How, that's impossible."  
  
"If you hadn't already guessed the answer to that, I wouldn't be here."  
  
"By Merlin, man, don't play games with me here; I have a muggle accused of murdering three wizards. It doesn't matter the circumstances, they're from powerful families who want justice one way or another."  
  
Billy Bob opened his robe to reveal his wand in a slim holster strapped to his right leg. He held the wand up and uttered a silencing charm then said "She's not really a muggle."  
  
Fudge glared at the man. His office had permanent silencing charms on it but if this was the only way to get him to talk, so be it. "So what kind of magical creature is she?"  
  
"Officially, I guess you could classify her has a magical creature, but she's more then that."  
  
"What exactly is she, I need to hear it."  
  
Billy Bob stood and said as he stepped toward the door. "Listen, make it easy on yourself and let her go, forget the whole thing happened."  
  
"What? Is? She?"  
  
"She's the Chosen One, The Slayer." Billy Bob's hand was on the door; he didn't turn around to face the Minister.  
  
"Not possible, The Chosen One's a myth."  
  
"Why would the Secret Tenets be written about a myth?" Billy Bob asked the door.  
  
"How do you know about her and the Tenets?"  
  
"It's my job, that's why I live so close to hell. You're on a cusp here, Minister, don't start a war with her and her people, it'll make what's his name look like minor leagues." With that, Billy Bob left.  
  
The Minster of Magic, Cornelius Fudge stared at the door. This couldn't be happening. His job and his way of life hung on the line. If she was who the American said she was then he had to let her go without a trial. If he did, he'd be drummed out. All the purebloods, the families of Death Eaters, their direct supporters and sympathizers would raise a holy hell.  
  
If he put her on trial, the rest of the Wizarding world would do the same thing. It was self defense. Pure and simple everybody knew it, there were witnesses even an Auror.  
  
If he disclosed why he couldn't try her, then a new stink would arise. Voldamort would gain followers even new groups could arise out of simple fear or disdain for her. Would that be so bad? Somebody would kill the Chosen One and no more problems; except a new Chosen One would be called. And legend had it that the first thing a new Chosen would do was to hunt down and kill those responsible for the death of her predecessor. That was how wars were started. That was why the Tenets were secret and that was why the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement existed. He leaned forward, put his head in is hands and stared at the picture laying on his desk. How could one little girl so threaten his way of life?  
  
--  
  
Meanwhile, across town in the shadows of the setting sun two young women looked at a map. A small white dot glowed near the top right hand side.  
  
"I swear, Red, it should be somewhere around here." The woman with wavy brown hair said.  
  
"Well there's nothing here." The red headed woman said looking around the street. "I'd be able to sense it if there was that much magic anywhere around here."  
  
The brunette held up the map waived it at her friend. "Well it's your locator spell you probably did it wrong."  
  
Willow looked at the map being waived in front of her face. "Let me see that." And she snatched it out of Faith's hand. She looked at it then looked at the street around them then back at the map. "This is wrong; you had the map upside down or something. She pointed to the bottom of the map on the opposite side of the glowing light. "We're down here somewhere."  
  
"No we're not, let me see." And Faith snatched at the map. This time Willow didn't have time to let go before Faith grabbed the map and it ripped in half and the locator dot went out.  
  
"Good going miss five by five." Willow snapped. "Now you've lost the locator."  
  
Faith handed her half of the map back. "Well just cast the spell again."  
  
"All of my supplies are back at head quarters and I'll need an INTACT map." Willow grumbled.  
  
"Why don't you just do your big white witch thing and go get her?"  
  
"Yea, right, you want to use a tank to swat a fly. Besides, I don't think the populace would appreciate seeing White Witch Willow floating down the street looking for her lost friend."  
  
"Hey, Red, what ever gets the job done."  
  
"No, I can sense she's not in danger, just behind a lot of complex magic. We'll go home and start over. Thank you very much."  
  
"You're welcome."  
  
To be continued........


	7. Oh, What's This?

**Chapter 7**

** "Oh, What's This?"**

** by OldScout**

"So there I was standing on the stairs leading into Hogwarts, my robes torn to shreds, all the hair on the top of my head burned off and Professor McGongall looks me up and down and all she says is" and Tonks switches to a proper old English accecnt. "'I suggest, Miss Tonks, that the next time you ride ON TOP of the broom.'".  
  
With that Tonks and Buffy broken into laughter.  
  
"You mean she didn't do anything about the feathers?"  
  
Tonks shook her suppressing more laughter.  
  
"Or the flying toilet seat?"  
  
"Never a word."  
  
"Or the exploding...."  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Oh my God, I would have been expelled again for sure for blowing up something that big."  
  
--  
  
Minister Fudge stared at the Observer glass and the two women laughing hysterically. "I see Auror Tonks has taken her task to heart."  
  
"She's telling a muggle everything about our world and Hogwarts." Auror Dawlish complained. "It's going to take a pretty high level memory spell to wipe this from her."  
  
"That's alright," Fudge said, "She's not really a muggle after all. Can you go see who's our senior person on staff in Magical Creatures and have them come up here immediately?"  
  
"Yes, Sir." And Dawlish rushed out.  
  
"What did the American have to say?" Director Bones asked knowing to wait until Dawlish was gone.  
  
"They know her." Fudge put the old muggle picture on the desk. "They think she's The Chosen One."  
  
Director Bones's head snapped up and she looked around the room to make sure nobody had just come in. "Not possible, she's a myth." She whispered.  
  
"I just spent the last few minutes re-reading the Ministry's copy of the Tenets. And the Yank's right, I can't believe the laws would have been written and incorporated as tenets because of a myth."  
  
"We can't let this get out." Bones said. "Who knows how people will react."  
  
"First, we have to make sure she is The Chosen One." Fudge replied. "That's why I need somebody from Magical Creatures to do an identification spell."  
  
"If she is, The Tenets are quite clear, we have to let her go. There's no choice."  
  
"There's always a choice. Nobody else knows about the Tenets except the Wizengamot and if they don't know she's The Chosen One..."  
  
Director Bones was holding her hands up to stop him. "I don't want to hear it, we could go to Azkaban."  
  
"If we release her without a proper trial, at best, we'll become out casts among the pure blood....." Fudge seamed to ponder a bit. "What if it was a mock trial?"  
  
"Everybody would have to be in on it, even her and the lawyers. We can't tell them, if she ever found out about her legal status in our community....how could we trust her?"  
  
Just then Auror Dawlish returned with Amos Diggery, a senior member of the Department For the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. In recent years, he'd taken to working the later shifts when there were fewer people around.  
  
"Auror Dawlish, thank you for your quick return, now please wait in the outer office." Fudge waited for Auror Dawlish to leave then cast a strong silencing charm over the room and turned to Amos. Mr. Diggory, thank you for coming so quickly."  
  
The slightly heavy set man scratched at his scrubby gray and brown beard and replied "I'm going to dawdle when summoned by the Minister?"  
  
"Of course not. Now, I'm going to ask you to perform a spell, and you must not mention it to anybody. In fact, I have considered asking you for a secrecy spell, but I'm sure I can trust a man like you." Fudge didn't like secrecy spells and he knew the spell he was going to ask Amos for required a lot of concentration and didn't want to make him nervous by insulting him."  
  
"What manner of spell?" Amos asked perplexed.  
  
"A locator spell." Fudge replied. "I want you to cast a spell that will identify if The Chosen One is within the Ministry Of Magic."  
  
Diggory's eyes went wide. "You mean The Vampire Slayer? Do you think that mug.."  
  
Fudge cut him off. "I don't want you speculating, I just want the spell done and done correctly so we can rule it out."  
  
Amos thought for a second, "That's a complex spell using some pretty strong Earth Magic." He continued to ponder. "I can do it, but I'll need to gather some things and check a few resources."  
  
"Then you had better get on it, we've got decisions to make."  
  
Forty five minutes later, Amos Diggory returned with box full of supplies and began to setup on floor after they moved some desks out of the way.  
  
--  
  
As Amos Diggory was starting to set up his locator spell, far above them two women stood in the middle of a busy intersection.  
  
"Looks like another stellar spell cast by the Magnificent Willow." Faith yelled as another car careened by wailing its horn.  
  
"Hey, Kill First Ask Questions Later, this is exactly where Buffy is." She held up the map only to have it nearly ripped out of her hands by the back draft of a Triple Decker bus rushing past.  
  
"So do you think she was on that bus?" Faith yelled back over the street noise, or in that taxi. She pointed to a cab that just slammed on its breaks and slid to a stop less then a meter from them.  
  
Willow glanced at the taxi then pointed at the map again "Look, we're the bright yellow dots, and she's the dim white one right next to us."  
  
Another taxi screeched to stop behind the first.  
  
"If she's right next to us, why is her dot so dim, I thought you said it would brighten as we got closer?" Faith yelled over the increase noise from the growing number of horns and stopped vehicles.  
  
"It is." Willow yelled back. "She must be somewhere." Willow looked up to the empty sky then back at Faith and they both looked down at the street below them. Willow and Faith looked back up at each other and grinned. "We'd better get going." She indicated a police car picking its way through the traffic jam.  
  
Several minutes later, the two women stood on a street corner a couple blocks away staring at a classic old red English phone booth. "Are you sure this is it?" Faith asked.  
  
"It's something." Willow replied as she walked a round the old contraption. "It definitely has a very complex magical signature."  
  
"Now what?" Faith asked as Willow opened the door and stepped in.  
  
After a couple of minutes Willow said "Faith come in here."  
  
The Slayer grinned. "Hey, Red, I like you and all, but you know I only swing one way."  
  
The red head's hand reached out and dragged the brunette into the box with her.  
  
Faith watched Willow as she held her hand over the obviously broken phone. "What are you doing? I don't think its going to work." She said holding the severed wire for the missing receiver.  
  
"Shh," Willow replied, trying to concentrate, "I'm trying to pick its lock."  
  
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic." An impatient female voice said out of the air around them. "Please state your names and your business."  
  
The two looked at each other not knowing what to say. Finally Willow shrugged and said "Willow Rosenberg, and Faith.." she glanced at Faith not knowing what to say for the last name this month.  
  
"Potter," Faith finally said. "Faith Potter."  
  
Willow stared at Faith and silently mouthed the last name "Potter?"  
  
Faith shrugged and motioned over Willow's shoulders to a faded old store front sign that read "Campbell Pottery".  
  
There was a long pause.  
  
Finally the voice came back. "And what is your business?"  
  
Willow and Faith just looked at each other. Finally Faith grinned and said. "We're her to see Buffy Summers."  
  
Willow had tried to clamp her hand around Faith's mouth but was too late, she said it.  
  
There was another long pause. "Are you her Lawyers?"  
  
This time Willow spoke before Faith could "We're his assistants."  
  
After several minutes two silver badges dropped out the shattered bottom of the phone.  
  
Faith caught them before they could fall to the floor. One read "Visitor – Faith Potter" and the other read "Visitor – Willow Rosenberg" and handed Willow hers. Willow immediately clipped hers to the lapel of the knee length thin cotton sweater jacket she wore and waited while Faith tied to find some place that wouldn't mark the leather jacket, lace top or tight leather pants she wore. As soon as she settled on the loose belt draped around her hips, the box started dropping.  
  
Amos Diggory sat inside the circle of salt he had made on the floor and waived his wand over the maps of the Ministry. He had been chanting incantations from the book in his lap for several minutes finally he brought the wand down hard and touched the map which flashed a bright white then returned to normal and the five candles set evenly in around in the salt flared and went out.  
  
"That's the best I can do." He said and looked at the maps. "Lets see..." He watched the maps a bright white light appeared. "The Chosen One appears to be in Interrogation room Delta Pi."  
  
"I was afraid of that." Fudge said.  
  
"At least we know." Bones added.  
  
"Oh, what's this? This isn't possible." Amos said still looking at the maps. "The Chosen One is also in the Visitor Atrium on Level Eight."  
  
To be continued.......


	8. What Happened?

**Chapter 8.**

** "What Happened?"**

** by OldScout**

The Slayer's boredom came rushing back at her. That big Auror had just come and fetched Tonks now Buffy sat in her chair fidgeting. She looked toward the "Observer" as Tonks had called. "Hey, Guys, where's the ladies' room?" Without giving anytime for anybody to respond, Buffy got up and waived her hand in front of the spot she could feel being watched from. "Hey, hello, ah, nature calls here. Surely you people have restrooms." She said loudly.  
  
Nothing.  
  
Buffy shrugged and tried the door. Using normal strength, the door wouldn't budge so she gave the old crystal door knob a little extra strength. It sill wouldn't turn now she was an annoyed, bored slayer who had to use the ladies room. Not a good combination. She tried one more time before resorting to the TV cop method of opening a locked door. Putting two hands on the door knob she twisted and put her shoulder into. Suddenly the door popped open and Buffy leaped into the hallway. She didn't notice the hail of splinters from the magically enhanced door frame scatter across the floor around her.  
  
--  
  
Auror Dawlish returned with Tonks in time to see the Minister reading a message from the reception desk in the visitor's Atrium. Apparently, the Minister, Director Bones, and Amos Diggory were already heading out of the conference room when the message arrived.  
  
"Auror Tonks," Minister Fudge said. "In your report, you listed friends Miss Summers had mentioned in your conversations. Do the names Willow Rosenberg, and Faith, ah, Potter sound familiar?"  
  
Tonks thought for a second. "She mentioned her best friend Willow, who's a witch, and another friend, Faith." Tonks stopped apparently replaying some conversations in her head. "I think Faith is the same friend she mentioned having trouble with and was glad she wasn't a witch."  
  
A voice came from the observer glass "Hey, Guys, where's the ladies room?"  
  
Director Bones turned to Auror Dawlish, "Won't you escort Miss Summers to the ladies' Lavatory?" She turned to Tonks. "You come with us, you know Miss Summers best, and perhaps you will be able to talk to her friends better than we could."  
  
--  
  
Auror Dawlish walked down the Hall Of Interrogation in time to see the door to Miss Summers's room burst open in a shower of debris. 'Don't these doors swing in?', he thought. Miss Summers had jumped into hallway following the door out.  
  
She looked at him. "Hey, where's the ladies' room?"  
  
Seeing the look on Auror Dawlish's face, Buffy looked at the mess around her. "Did I do that? Sorry." The look of surprise turned to annoyance then self-righteousness as he reached inside his robe.  
  
Most people seeing an Auror reach for his wand would have fled or surrendered, but most people weren't a slayer who had seen a child killed by a wand and a word just hours earlier. Buffy charged.  
  
Auror Dawlish's wand had just cleared his robes when a strong hand gripped his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. Suddenly the nearest wall slammed him in the face.  
  
With one hand pushing against Dawlish's back to hold him against the wall Buffy twisted his wand arm up his back to near breaking. "I know what you can do with these things." Buffy said quietly. "You can kill with a word. Anybody can, from a child in a school yard to a little old lady pushing all her belongings down the street in a shopping cart." She gave his wrist a squeeze causing him yelp and let go of the wand which Buffy grabbed, letting go of his arm. "You spread the word. As far as I'm concerned, this is a deadly weapon, if anybody points one at me or mine I'll respond accordingly." She then let Dawlish go and stepped away from him.  
  
"How dare you assault an Auror in the very halls of the Ministry of Magic." Dawlish said indignantly. "You could definitely do time in Azkaban for this. Now return my wand and I will not press the matter." He held out his hand.  
  
Buffy could see the perspiration on the man's forehead. She knew fear when she saw it. She held the wand up in front of him and snapped it in half with one hand.  
  
Dawlish's eyes went wide and he stuttered. "How dare you?" She handed him the pieces.  
  
"Now, the ladies' room?" She demanded.  
  
"Down," he pointed to the opposite end of the hallway. "Left, right, left and left again."  
  
Grabbing the front of his robes, Buffy pulled him with her. "You show me." She glared back at him. "You'd better not be playing with me because the longer this takes the more irritable I'll get."  
  
--  
  
Faith and Willow walked through the long Atrium to the golden gate and security station at the far end. Neither knew what to make of the fireplaces on either side or the strange fountain in the middle. Truth was, at the time, they just didn't care. Sitting at the security station was an extremely bored looking middle aged witch. She was wearing a well worn dark blue uniform robe and matching pointed hat. The witch looked up from her knitting.  
  
"Miss Rosenberg and Miss, ah, Potter." She said staring at Faith. "You must register and leave your wands here."  
  
"I don't have a wand." Willow responded with her best shy, pixie voice and look.  
  
"Humnph." The watchwitch turned to Faith. "What about you?"  
  
Faith produced a wooden stake from the back of her jacket and placed it on the desk with a heavy thunk. "This is the closest I got."  
  
The watchwitch picked up the stake and examined it. It was a finely carved heavy piece of oak. Around the top of the handle was carved the name 'Mr. Woody'. "This isn't a wand." The witch scowled as she registered the weapon.  
  
"No, but it works magic for me." Faith responded with a leer.  
  
"And what is the name of the lawyer you work for?" The watchwitch continued, ignoring Faith's comment.  
  
"Charles Gunn." Willow answered pushing herself in front of the smirking Faith.  
  
Just then a lift inside the gate arrived. It was carrying four oddly dressed people. The most un-remarkable was a middle aged woman with graying hair cut short and curled. She was wearing a long black robe and black pointed witches boots. Next to her stood a balding portly man with a mustache who was wearing a pin-striped robe and purple pointed boots. Next to the man with the mustache was another with a shabby looking old black robe. He was slightly taller than the first man and had a scrubby brown and gray beard. The fourth person was about the same height as the other three but looked significantly smaller because she was a lot younger and thinner than the other three. She looked about the same age as Willow and Faith but with bright blue short spiky hair and was the best dressed of the three with a crisp clean black robe that was more like a uniform than what the others wore.  
  
The four new arrivals approached the security desk. The man with the mustache and purple shoes appeared to be in charge since the others followed and stayed behind him. Ignoring Willow and Faith the man picked up the log parchment the watchwitch was making. He read it then picked up the stake and showed it to the other man. Both exchanged looks and finally turned to the two women.  
  
"Miss Rosenberg." He said looking at Willow then turned to Faith "and Miss, ah, Potter. I'm Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic."  
  
"Hello, Minister Fudge," Willow replied. "I'm Willow Rosenberg and this is Faith Potter. We understand you have Buffy Summers here we'd like to speak with her."  
  
Glancing at Willow like she'd made an indecipherable noise Fudge continued. "It states here that you work for an Attorney Gunn. I know all advocates registered with the Ministry and I am not familiar with an Attorney Gunn."  
  
"Attorney Gunn is not registered with the Ministry." Willow replied. "He's formerly with the Walfram and Hart L.A. office and has recently relocated to London."  
  
"Hmph." Fudge replied and turned to the older woman behind him. "A muggle, of course."  
  
As Fudge spoke, Faith stepped to the side and approached the woman with blue hair. "Hi, I'm Faith." She said holding out her hand. "It appears your Minister has lost manners."  
  
Tonks looked horrified at the breach of protocol but held out her hand. Fudge frowned back at the women. "My apologies." He said through clenched teeth. "This is Auror Tonks," then indicated the others. "This is Amelia Bones, Director of the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement and this Amos Diggery, of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."  
  
As Fudge introduced each of his companions, Faith stepped up very close to them and shook each person's hand with a strong grip. To everybody but Tonks, it was a very intimidating gesture. She didn't know anything about Slayers and was used to Buffy's dominating behavior.  
  
It was time to take control of this meeting. As soon as Faith stepped back she looked at Tonks. "So where's Buffy?"  
  
"Excuse me young lady, you will address your questions to me." Fudge practically growled.  
  
Faith side stepped and glided in front of Fudge but continued to look at Tonks. She leaned in as if she was going to whisper but spoke in a normal voice. "I can smell Buffy's scent on her." She said. "Auror Tonks has been with our friend very recently and we came to..."  
  
"See her." Willow interrupted knowing Faith was about to say "Get her".  
  
"How can you smell her?" Tonks asked amazed. "She wasn't wearing any perfume that I could smell."  
  
Faith grinned and it wasn't pleasant. "Shampoo, conditioner, deodorant and the oil she uses to sharpen that katana her sister bought her make for a very unique scent."  
  
"You can smell that on me?" Tonks was amazed. She had actually had very little physical contact with Buffy.  
  
"I have many talents." Faith dead panned.  
  
--  
  
She had to be The Slayer. Amos Diggery was amazed. He'd never met The Slayer, the rarest of all magical creatures and purported to be the deadliest. She was dominating and intimidating. The five Ministry personnel would never admit it, but every one of them knew who was in charge of this little meeting and it wasn't the Ministry or the Slayer's handler. Was the proper term 'Watcher'? He'd have to look that up when he got back to his desk. It was the Slayer.  
  
If this Faith Potter was the Slayer, who or what was Buffy Summers? The spell said she was The Slayer as well. But there was only one Chosen One; one Slayer at a time. How could there be two? He knew he'd done the spell correctly. He knew it worked. He felt it. The spell had pointed out two Slayers, not just two random women, but two who were extremely close. It wasn't coincidence, there were two Slayers and one came to fetch her sister home. Amos started to perspire, if Fudge didn't let Miss Summers go soon, things were going to spiral out of control very quickly.  
  
A lift arrived from an upper level and a thin balding man rushed to Director Bones. He whispered something to her and she went pale. She turned and said something to Minister Fudge who suddenly got very nervous. He looked at Willow and Faith. "You two stay right there." He pointed to Auror Tonks and Amos Diggory. "You two watch them."  
  
Fudge turned to the watchwitch. "Code Raven, lock this place down, nobody gets in or out without my say so." He took hold of Director Bones's elbow and ushered her toward the lifts.  
  
Willow turned to Faith. "What happened?"  
  
Faith was grinning from ear to ear. "Buffy escaped."  
  
**To be continued.................**


	9. Why Don't You Just Ask?

**Part 9  
"Why Don't You Just Ask?"  
By OldScout.  
**  
Buffy and Auror Dawlish stood looking at the remains of the door to room Delta Pi. Buffy tried to push it closed but the more force she used, the more things seemed to break.  
  
"If you hadn't broken my wand," Dawlish grumbled, "I could probably fix it before anybody got back."  
  
"You're lucky that's all I broke." Buffy replied, patting his shoulder in sympathy.  
  
Auror Dawlish looked at the petite woman forcing a frown to her face to try and show sympathy for his loss. He couldn't be mad at her; nothing she did seemed to be out of malice. Even her destructive trip to the lavatory had a very natural explanation. He could have left her there, run for help, gotten back up, but other than her not so idle threat about pointing wands, she seemed harmless. He knew she wasn't, he'd been on the recovery team when the Death Eaters attacked Tonks and Buffy in Diagon Alley. He could still see the man with his head nearly twisted off and the other kicked so hard that the mediwitch said his heart had been crushed and he didn't even want to think about the force needed to throw that knife she killed the third with.  
  
Yet here she was, trying to cover up a mess like a child who had spilled a bucket of floo powder. He couldn't resist wanting to help her.  
  
"Do you think they'll understand?" Buffy said meekly. "You know I was in there for an awfully long time."  
  
"I'm sure the maintenance elves will be able to put it back together in quick order."  
  
--  
  
"Is this her non-surgical strike?" Director Bones whispered to Minister Fudge as they rushed to the lifts with the Auror who had come to get them.  
  
"The timing does seem a bit too coincidental." Fudge agreed. "As soon as we get to Law Enforcement, send down a couple more Aurors to keep an eye on those two." As Fudge finished speaking, he tapped a control with his wand and the lift door slid closed behind them and the contraption rushed up to level 2.  
  
When they reached the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement, Director Bones sent two of the newly arrived Aurors back down to the visitor's atrium then turned to the other twelve that had gathered. "What's going on?"  
  
"Security registered an alarm from the door to room Delta PI being forced open." One of the men responded. "When they checked their Observer feed, Miss Summers was not in the room."  
  
"Not possible." Minister Fudge said. "Those doors are charmed to be unbreakable, I don't care who she is."  
  
"And the Observer is guaranteed to be invisible." Director Bones replied.  
  
"Where's Auror Dawlish, he was suppose to stay with her." Fudge asked.  
  
"We haven't seen him."  
  
"Okay, has anybody gone to investigate the room?"  
  
They all looked at each other.  
  
"We were just about to." One of the older Aurors said.  
  
"Fine, then lets go." Director Bones drew her wand and breezed through the gathered Aurors to the Hall of Interrogation.  
  
If anybody had bothered to check the maps from the locator spell, they would have noticed one white dot indicating Buffy stood outside of room Delta PI while the other headed toward them in the lift.  
  
--  
  
As soon as the lift carrying the Minister, the Director and the Auror that came to fetch them started toward level two, Faith grabbed her stake from the security desk and turned to Willow "Okay, let's go."  
  
Auror Tonks, Amos Diggory and the watchwitch immediately pulled their wands. The watchwitch fumbled to get her's untangled from her knitting.  
  
Willow looked at the three wands pointed at her and Faith. "Oh, aren't they cute." She chirped. "Where can I get one?"  
  
Tonks and Diggory took a few steps back keeping some distance between themselves and Faith.  
  
"You two have to stay right here." Tonks said in her best Auror voice. She had no idea what manner magic Buffy had but was certain Faith had the same and that made her extremely dangerous.  
  
"Red, we don't have time for this." Faith said to her friend.  
  
"Can I see those?" Willow asked like a naive child and stepped forward in front of Faith.  
  
"Miss Rosenberg, we are not here to play show and tell." Amos replied.  
  
Willow pouted. "Please?"  
  
"You better show her your wands." Faith looked over Willow's shoulder with a grin. "Willow always gets what she wants when she pouts."  
  
"You've got to be kidding.." Tonks started to say just as her wand jumped out of her. She watched it and the other two wands fly to Willow whose demeanor had changed from spoiled child to something else. Nothing actually changed just her attitude, but the child act was gone.  
  
"Got 'em." Willow smiled triumphantly as she held up the wands to show Faith. "Let's go." And she headed for the lifts.  
  
Willow and Faith headed to the lifts and Willow turned back to Tonks and Diggory. "Aren't you coming?"  
  
The two stood there, their mouths open staring at the two intruders. "What?" Tonks choked out.  
  
"Well the Minister did say to watch us. Didn't he?" Willow smiled.  
  
Soon the four were standing in an open lift.  
  
"Where are we going?" Willow asked no one in particular.  
  
"You don't expect us to tell you where she is? Do you?" Amos asked indignantly.  
  
Willow pulled out a map with white dot on it. "Up, but what floor?"  
  
Tonks and Diggory crossed their arms and glared at the two women. "You'll have to guess." Tonks said.  
  
"Second floor." Faith replied  
  
"How?" Tonks glared at Faith surprised.  
  
Faith pointed to a sign, the second line read "Level 2: Department of Magical Law Enforcement."  
  
"You're still not going anywhere." Tonks said. "You need to be properly trained with a wand to use those controls.  
  
Willow held her hand over the controls. "Level two of eighteen." She said. "Here we go." As the lift started up, another lift came down holding two more Aurors to help keep an eye on Faith and Willow.  
  
--  
  
One end of the Hall of Interrogation was filled with black robes. Witches and Wizards stood shoulder to shoulder pointing wands at Auror Dawlish and Buffy. Buffy glanced at the crowd and stepped behind Dawlish. "It's only a door." She said in a soft voice. With Dawlish blocking their view, the group could not see the smile on Buffy's face as she realized why all these people where standing their pointing those horrid little sticks at her.  
  
"Auror Dawish, what is the meaning of this?" Director Bones demanded as they approached.  
  
"Miss Summers had to use the lavatory." Dawlish replied with as much authority as he could muster. "I was late getting here to escort her so she started to take matters into her own hands. We were just now discussing the best way to repair the damage."  
  
Buffy peered around the large Auror and tapped him on the back. "Tell them about the wands or I will."  
  
"Miss Summers would like you to put your wands away." Auror Dawlish stated. "Apparently seeing the child killed today has given her a bad taste for them."  
  
"We will do no such thing." Minister Fudge stated. "This is the Ministry Of Magic and I will have no muggle telling us what to do even if she is the Chose One!"  
  
At that, several Aurors turned and looked at Minister Fudge while Dawlish turned and looked at Buffy. "Chosen One? What's that?"  
  
"Chosen One comma the." Buffy replied. "Cross reference it with Vampire Slayer, one girl in all the world, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure you have some department around here that knows all about it."  
  
"Miss Summers, we apologize." Director Bones said. She turned to the others as she put her wand away. "Put your wands away." She said. "Miss Summers is not a threat."  
  
"What are you doing?" Minister Fudge said to Director Bones still pointing his wand at Buffy. "There are a lot of issues at stake here. Lives and lively hoods. This is not YOUR decision to make."  
  
"On the contrary." Director Bones replied. "As Director of the Ministry of Law Enforcement, it IS my decision to make."  
  
"Hey B., we too late?" A female voice said from behind the Aurors.  
  
--  
  
The three American women sat around the table in the conference room going through Buffy's purchases. Buffy was standing wearing a pair of the blue pumps showing them to Faith and Willow.  
  
To the far side of the room Minster Fudge and Director Bones where talking to Auror Tonks and Amos Diggory.  
  
"Now tell us." Fudge said quietly so their 'Guests' couldn't hear. "How exactly did they get past you and up the lift?"  
  
"The red head, Willow, must be a witch." Amos said. "She just held out her hand and summoned our wands."  
  
"Perhaps she's a telekinetic." Director Bones suggested.  
  
"I thought so except she operated the lift the same way." Tonks said. She turned to the Minister. "She said there are eighteen levels to the Ministry. What.."  
  
"Show's how good she is." Fudge interrupted. "Everybody knows there are only ten levels."  
  
"Hey, why don't you just ask?" Faith called to them from across the room.  
  
"I knew I should have used a silencing charm." Fudge muttered.  
  
Just then the door to the conference room opened and a middle aged wizard came in. He was wearing purple robes decorated with crescent moons and stars with matching purple cowboy hat and cowboy boots.  
  
"Hey, Minister." He said loudly as he walked straight to the four Ministry personnel. "I heard you had a problem with Miss Summers, I thought I'd see if there was anything else I could do to help before I keyed back to the states."  
  
"Billy Bob?" Willow looked up from her conversation with Buffy. "What the hell are you doing here?" She looked at the man's clothes. "And what's up with the crazy fashion statement?"  
  
All the color drained from the American Auror's face. "Oh, crap."  
  
**To be continued.......**


	10. Pity The Uninformed

**-**

**(See Chapter One for new disclaimers and author's Note. 7/5/04)  
-**

**-**

**-**

**  
Part 10. "Pity The Uninformed."  
By OldScout**  
  
"Oh, look at the time." Billy Bob held up his bare wrist like he was looking at a watch. "Gotta go." He started heading back to the door. "Minister, if you need anything else, I'm at your service. Willow nice seeing you again, wish we had time to chat, maybe some other time."  
  
"Not so fast mister." Willow said as she stood up. "We need to chat now."  
  
"Miss Rosenberg, do you know Auror Hicklock?" Minister Fudge asked.  
  
Billy Bob used the distraction to pull the door open, which immediately pulled out of his hands and slammed shut. Willow glared at Auror Hicklock who hung his head and backed away from the door.  
  
"Oh, yea." Willow said. "Me and Billy Bob go way back." She turned to Auror Hicklock. "Hicklock? What kind of name is that?"  
  
"It's a fine old American Wizarding name I'll have you know." Billy Bob defended his family name.  
  
Willow walked over to Billy Bob and put her arm around him. She looked extremely small compared to the large cowboy Auror. "We've been doing business for over year now. Haven't we?"  
  
Looking a little sheepish, Billy Bob replied. "Has it been that long? It seems like just yesterday."  
  
"Ah, Red." Faith interjected. "Just curious; exactly what kind of business?"  
  
"Billy Bob runs the best magic supply shop in the area." Willow said. "Well actually, the only one I've found and it's all they way in Toledo."  
  
"No respectable witch or wizard would go anywhere near Cleveland." Billy Bob replied.  
  
"So, I'm not a respectable witch? Which brings me to my big question, Billy Bob." Willow said with arm still around the man as she escorted him back to the middle of the room. "You knew what I was. You knew I wasn't just some want to be Wicca praying to the Earth Mother and buying crystals, right?"  
  
"I suppose."  
  
"I was the real deal, and apparently so were you. Now tell me why you didn't ever mention the Wizarding world to me? You know, today's been a real eye opener, and I'm sure Buffy could have avoided a lot of trouble here if she'd known."  
  
"I'm sure Auror Hicklock has other more important things to do than explain himself to an untrained minor league Wicca." Minister Fudge interrupted trying to end this little confrontation as quickly as possible.  
  
"Quiet." Willow said softly turning to the Minister. "I was speaking to Billy Bob."  
  
"How dare you speak to me that way?!" Fudge sputtered. "I can still have you arrested for unauthorized entry into the Ministry."  
  
"Oh, pity the uninformed." Faith said from her seat at the table.  
  
Willow turned and winked at Faith and Buffy then turned back to Auror Hicklock. "Bored now." She leaned up and whispered to Billy Bob. "You'd better start talking before me and the girls start causing trouble." She returned to normal volume. "Which brings me to another question, though you still haven't answered the first and you're not off the hook for it. How do you know about Buffy, Mister? You know, that's what you were offering information on, not me." Willow crossed her arms and started tapping her foot, waiting for answers.  
  
"Miss Rosenberg, YOU are not in charge here! I am and I will ask the questions." Fudge said through clenched teeth. Everybody in the room swore they could see steam starting to come out of his ears. He stomped over to the petite red head who really wasn't much shorter than him. "Now sit yourself down and be quiet or I will have you removed and incarcerated for breaking and entering Ministry offices, unlawful magical lock breaking, lying to Ministry Security, failure to register your wand, harboring dangerous magical creatures and anything else I can think of."  
  
Willow smiled. "You know, it's really cute when the smoke starts coming out of your ears like that."  
  
Minister Fudge stepped away from Willow and pointed at her. "Auror Tonks, remove this woman and place her in the heavily charmed security cells."  
  
Tonks and Amos Diggory instinctively reached for their wands but Buffy was already half way across the room. "What did I tell you about those little sticks of yours?" The two hesitated then moved their hands away from their wands. Buffy turned to Fudge. "You," she said as she pointed to a chair at the head of the conference table. "Sit down and be quite." She turned to Director Bones and Auror Hicklock and Amos Diggory "Won't you join us as well?" Then to Tonks "And you can have the seat next Faith."  
  
Buffy returned to the conference table and sat the end opposite Minister Fudge. "Okay, you crazy people have been tap dancing around something ever since you brought me hear and it is time to put our cards on the table so we can all go home."  
  
"Got that right." Faith interject. She sat reclined with both of her heavy booted feet on the table crossed at the ankles. "You know I am getting way hungry. Why don't we order pizza?"  
  
"Pizza sounds good." Willow said from the seat she had just taken. She had considered pouting about Buffy taking over but watching her put Fudge in his place was almost as much fun as what she had planned.  
  
"What?" Director Bones looked at the women. "You call us crazy? You just get everybody ready to tell all their secrets and you want to stop for pizza?"  
  
"We're not going to stop." Buffy said. "We'll just have your Aurors order it." She nodded to Willow who headed for the door.  
  
"Do the local pizza shops deliver to phone booths?" Willow considered just before opening the door to call Auror Dawlish in.  
  
After several minutes of heated discussion on what kinds of pizza to order, Dawlish was on his way to the Muggle Artifacts office to see if he could find somebody who knew how to order muggle pizza. He really didn't think the women would like wizarding pumpkin pizza. He wondered if they were still laughing at the suggestion.  
  
"Okay," Buffy started. "We'll start with the obvious. I am a Slayer, the one girl in all the world chosen to fight blah, blah." She looked at Fudge and Bones. "You with me so far?"  
  
They nodded.  
  
"So is Faith." Buffy added.  
  
"Now that's where you loose me." Director Bones said. "If you are the Chosen One how can there be two?"  
  
"I guess we're the chosen two." Faith replied.  
  
"It's easy," Buffy said. "When I was sixteen, I drowned, the details are not important. My friend Xander revived me but it was enough to activate my replacement, Kendra. When Kendra was killed, Faith was chosen."  
  
"Yep, I'm the last Chosen slayer. Quite a responsibility don't you think? I keep telling them I should get paid more just for that. Plus I've never died on the job." Faith smirked at Buffy.  
  
"Why are you the last?" Director Bones asked. "It follows that if you were killed the next potential would be called."  
  
"Hrrmph." Auror Hicklock cleared his throat.  
  
"Ah, it sounds like Billy Bob knows the answer, this I've got to hear this." Willow said from her seat next to him. As she spoke, he reached up nudged him with the tips or her fingers. "Go ahead; what' the scoop according to Billy Bob?"  
  
The room stared at Auror Hicklock. Finally he said. "There will be no more Slayers chosen, because there are no potentials left to choose from."  
  
"Gold star for the strangely dressed cowboy from Toledo." Buffy chirped.  
  
"No more potentials?" Amos Diggory asked. "How can this be? One dies another is chosen, that's just the way it is."  
  
"Tell 'em Billy Bob." Willow offered.  
  
"Well," A defeated looking Billy Bob said. "We're not sure of the exact details," He looked at the slayers and Willow. "I'm sure you can tell it more accurately."  
  
"Oh, no." Buffy said. "You're the one offering information on me, let's hear it."  
  
"Well, according to reports." Billy Bob finally started. "A couple of years ago an entity known as 'The First' saw an opportunity to end the Slayer line by having all the potentials killed off."  
  
"The First?" Director Bones asked. "The first what?"  
  
"The First Evil." Buffy said. "Nasty thing, but in the end, all bark, no bite."  
  
"But it had some pretty nasty followers doing its bidding." Billy Bob continued.  
  
"So all the potential slayers were murdered?" Amos asked with a look of horror on his face.  
  
"A lot were." Buffy said. "And a lot starting heading for Sunnydale."  
  
"Why the Hellmouth?" Minister Fudge asked.  
  
"That's where I was." Buffy responded. "They came for protection."  
  
"But Sunnydale collapsed." Fudge replied. "Everybody knows that." He looked at Hicklock. "With all the mystical energy coming from the place, and the major eruption a year earlier, we wondered what took you people so long to finally do something about the place."  
  
"Sorry wasn't us." Billy Bob said. "Weren't you listening, the Chosen One was in Sunnydale, we couldn't do anything. Besides, this was before the collapse. Potential slayers were heading to Sunnydale for the protection of the Chosen One." He looked at Buffy. "Apparently, Miss Summers decided to turn her gathering group of potentials into an army to help fight the forces of the First."  
  
"Hey," Buffy defended. "We had to do something, I couldn't just let them sit around and get picked off one at a time."  
  
"Miss Summers, don't get me wrong, we never condemned you." Hicklock said. "You made hard decisions ones the old men in the Ministry never would have had the insight or creativity to make." He turned back to the ministry people. "In the end, even our people had to leave town, the magical forces were too great they knew something big was about to happen.  
  
"You mean the collapse?" Bones asked.  
  
"Oh no, I mean the Hellmouth was about to open wide spew an army of Turok Han into the world."  
  
"You knew and didn't help?" Buffy asked in disbelief. Her opinion of the Wizarding world was dropping even lower.  
  
"What's a Turok Han?" Director Bones asked.  
  
"We knew too late." Auror Hicklock said. "It was just days before the event. We were just starting to gather forces when you changed the time table."  
  
"A Turok Han is a really nasty uber-vamp that is extremely tough to dust." Faith supplied.  
  
"How did Miss Summers change the time table?" Minister Fudge asked.  
  
"We weren't sure." Hicklock admitted. "One day we knew the final battle was just days away and the next there were two phenomenal surges of magic within minutes of each other and Sunnydale was gone and so were the potentials."  
  
"Okay, I assume you mean Sunnydale was gone as in destroyed by the sink hole." Minister Fudge said. "But what do you mean the potentials were gone?"  
  
"Every locator spell we did could not locate a potential slayer, anywhere. They were gone." Hicklock said. "We tried the Devon Luminology Spell, the Selig Locator Cast, the Deggion Finder Charm and a few even more obscure locator spells. Not one potential anywhere." He shook his head. "The best hypothesis was that the First had cast a spell to kill or neutralize all potential slayers and that Miss Rosenberg here managed to finally cast a spell that not only closed the hellmouth, but this time destroy it for good."  
  
"Preposterous." Fudge exclaimed. "To even consider that this obviously untrained witch could cast such as spell is unthinkable. No wonder the American Ministry was never able to tame those hellmouths."  
  
"She had before." Buffy defended Willow.  
  
"She had what?" Fudge sneered at young women.  
  
"Closed the hellmouth." Buffy replied. "A couple of times."  
  
"Her." Fudge pointed his finger at the frail looking red head sitting next to Auror Hicklock.  
  
"At the time, the theory fit the facts, but it's not what happened." Billy Bob said trying to avoid a confrontation. He knew the three women defended each other without prejudice and they would only accept so many ignorant insults.  
  
"I didn't do it." Willow said.  
  
"Do what?" Director Bones asked.  
  
"Close the hellmouth. That's not the spell I cast." Willow replied.  
  
"What did you do?" Fudge asked dripping condescension.  
  
"I got rid of all the potentials." Willow replied with a deep quiet voice.  
  
"Why, how?" Fudge stammered. This was not possible. No way could this skinny un-trained American witch a spell to kill girls across the globe. Not possible. If that many young women had mysteriously died or disappeared he would have known. It would have been all over the muggle and magical worlds.  
  
"Why would you do such a thing?" Director Bones asked contempt and fear clouding her voice.  
  
"Because I asked her to." Buffy said.  
  
"Just like that, you do what she asks?" Fudge said between clenched teeth.  
  
"Of course." Willow smiled. "She's the leader."  
  
"That's no excuse." Director Bones replied then turned to Buffy. "Why would you ask your friend to do such a thing?"  
  
"What get rid of all the potentials?" Buffy looked at Director Bones like she was stupid and fought back a smile. She knew these people thought the potentials were harmed or killed by the spell and she loved watching them squirm a little. Finally she said "Because I needed an army of Slayers to face the Turak Hon, not just a bunch teenage girls one of whom might become a slayer if Faith was killed." She looked at the room. "All the potentials disappeared because Willow cast a spell that turned them all into Slayers."  
  
Buffy leaned forward and glared at Minister Fudge who and gone pale. "Listen to me very carefully. Faith and I led a group of teenage girls into hell to face an army of super vampires hoping that Willow would be able to cast a spell that would affect the whole world and change those girls into Slayers. It was our only chance to save the world. Now ponder this; those girls followed us down before the spell was cast. A bunch of teenage girls with less skill to defend themselves then one of your Aurors followed us into hell. You wonder why we laugh at you. You don't frighten us, we know fear, you're no where close."  
  
"Now ponder this." Faith added. "There's an army of slayers out there that will follow her into hell, and has. Do you really want to mess with us?"  
  
Willow turned and glared at the Slayers. "Would you two stop being so dramatic. Look at him." She glanced at Fudge. "You've got him so shaken up he looks like he's going to have kittens.  
  
"You..." Director Bones said.  
  
"Activated..." Amors Diggory added.  
  
"All the Slayers?" Minister Fudge finished. "How? It's not possible."  
  
"I'm sooo glad nobody told me that before I did it." Willow replied. "Otherwise we'd all be dead right now."  
  
"Does the American Ministry know about this?" Fudge asked Hicklock.  
  
"We figured it out." Hicklock replied. "Sometime after the collapse, somebody finally did a locator spell to locate the two Slayers and the map lit up like a Christmas tree."  
  
"Now it's your turn." Buffy said to her shocked audience. "What great secret about your world haven't you been telling us? What exactly is going on?"  
  
"We have to tell them." Director Bones said. "With so many they need to know."  
  
"Would you excuse us a second?" Minister Fudge grabbed Director Bones by the arm and led her to the far end of the room and cast a silencing charm around them.  
  
Tonks stared at Buffy. This stuff about the slayers was a bomb shell. Magical warriors created to protect the earth from evil. What an asset they would make to the Order. She had to contact The Order but how? She was too tangled into this. She just couldn't announce she had more important personal things to do and leave. That would be the end for her at the Ministry. She knew it.  
  
"What's going on?" Buffy asked Willow.  
  
"Their discussing if they should tell us about the Tenets." Willow replied.  
  
"Who's tenants?"  
  
"Wait." Tonks sat forward from her reclined position where she'd been quietly absorbing everything. "You can hear through the silencing charm?" This wasn't possible. Everybody knew the charm blocked sound totally. It just wasn't possible to hear through it.  
  
"No." Willow replied, but her tone said, 'No, of course not you silly girl, that's impossible.' She smiled. "I can read lips."  
  
As the two officials continued to talk Buffy pulled out the bracelet she'd bought for Dawn. The stone glowed white briefly. "Hey check this out." She said quietly to Faith and handed the bracelet to her.  
  
Faith reach for the bracelet which glowed white briefly as her hand approached. "What is it?" Faith pulled her hand back and reached for it again watching the stone glow again.  
  
"It's supposed to detect vampires by glowing red." Buffy replied.  
  
Willow looked at the bracelet but missed it glowing white.  
  
"Will it react to Red?" Faith asked.  
  
"Hey, Will." Buffy said. "Check this out." She held the bracelet toward Willow.  
  
Willow picked up the piece of jewelry. It didn't respond. "It has a gypsy spell on it." She said turning the thing over in her hand. "It feels like the ensouling spell." She handed it back as she looked back to Minister Fudge and Director Bones. "Probably does detect vampires and other related magic.  
  
"Director Bones said something about helping with You-Know-Who." Willow continued her narration of the snippets she was picking up.  
  
"No I don't." Buffy replied.  
  
"You don't want?" Faith responded.  
  
"Know who Bones thinks we can help with. Do you?" she asked Faith.  
  
"How would know who they're talking about?" Faith replied. "Wasn't she talking to you?"  
  
"I thought she was talking to Fudge." Buffy stated.  
  
"I mean Willow."  
  
"You think they're talking about Willow?" Buffy smiled. "I thought they were talking about us."  
  
Eyes glazing over, Tonks could only stare as the two slayers continued their meaningless ramble. At first she thought they were seriously stupid then realized they were playing some kind word game with each other. She started to smile and feel a little jealously. Tonks had a lot of people she called friends, but no one so close they could or would revert to silliness in a serious situation just to pass the time.  
  
"Where's our pizza?" Faith asked breaking out of the complex conversation she was having with Buffy. "I'm still hungry. Hey remember slayer metabolism and all. How long we been waiting?"  
  
Willow looked at her watch. "Oh it's only been." She stopped and looked it at again then tapped it a couple of times. "Shoot I think my watch stopped."  
  
Billy Bob looked over from where he'd been quietly sitting. "Is it battery powered? Most muggle electronics don't work in the Wizarding world."  
  
"How long have we been here?" Willow asked the others at the table.  
  
"Around three hours." Amos replied.  
  
"Oh, Goddess." Willow replied as she and Faith started to stand.  
  
"What?" Buffy was instinctively standing with her friends.  
  
"We're not the Cavalry." Faith said.  
  
"We're the advance scouts." Willow added. "I left a locator spell and control charm on the phone box. The rest are to coming looking for us if they didn't hear from us in three hours."  
  
Buffy glared at Willow, already knowing the answer to her next question. "They who?"  
  
"Dawn and the Slayers."  
  
"Not just Dawn though I bet." Buffy glared at Willow.  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
Minister Fudge and Director Bones saw everybody suddenly getting up from the table. "What's going?" He asked after taking down the silencing charm.  
  
"There's going to be trouble. We have to get to the to the atrium." Willow said and headed for the door.  
  
--  
  
Meanwhile on level eight in the Visitor's Atrium Auror Dawlish approached the door to the lift to the street. Somebody had just arrived and at first he thought it was the pizza then remembered they would use the phone. Muggle Artifacts had known a muggle pizza shop that was Wizarding aware and would deliver to the booth.  
  
The lift door opened revealing three young women. All three had long brown hair, the youngest was the tallest and probably in her late teens. She stepped out first followed closely by the oldest looking who was probably in her late twenties. She was the only one wearing a skirt and glasses. They seemed to ignore him as they stepped off.  
  
"Kennedy, go get the rest." The youngest said.  
  
"We'll be right back." Kennedy replied. The lift door closed taking the young woman back to the street.  
  
Auror Dawlish stood staring at the two women as he reached for his wand then remembered it was in pieces. "Can I help you ladies with something?"  
  
"Yea," the girl replied. "We're here to retrieve my sister, Buffy Summers, and her friends. Would you go fetch them please?"  
  
Overriding the lock and controls of the lift to the street had set off silent alarms all over the ministry. It was assumed only one type of person might have the ability and willingness to do such a thing.  
  
People wearing black robes started appearing out of the fire places on either side of the long atrium while others appeared in the middle of hall with loud popping sounds.  
  
Backing away from the two women Dawlish held up his hands. "Ladies, I don't know who you are, but you've just caused a whole lot of trouble."  
  
Auror Dawlish looked over his shoulder to indicate the number of Aurors who'd just arrived. When he looked back, the woman with the skirt was gone, replaced by someone or something else.  
  
Her long hair appeared rougher and had distinct streaks of blue rimming her face. The blue continued down both sides of her face and was reflected in her unnatural ice blue eyes. Her skirt and sweater were gone replaced by an amour style body suit made of a patch work of brown, black and dark red leather. She had her head cocked slightly to the side staring at Dawlish.  
  
The girl acted like she hadn't noticed the transformation of her companion or the arrival of the Aurors. She just stood there arms crossed tapping her foot doing her best imitation of Take-Charge-Willow. "I'm waiting."  
  
**To be continued........................**


	11. You’re Responsible For This Travesty

**Part 11. **

**"You're Responsible For This Travesty."  
By OldScout.**  
  
One of the new arrivals was an older man, make that an old man. He wore long flowing purple robes, with a soft pointed hat that drooped to the side. He had long white hair and matching long white beard. While the other wizards held their wands pointed at the two women, this man held his to his side.  
  
"Auror Dawlish," the old man said. "Why has the intrusion alarm been activated? Is the Ministry being attacked by Death Eaters?"  
  
"PP.Professor Dumbledor," Auror Dawlish stuttered, not expecting him to answer the call. "These women apparently were able to override the charms on the lift to the street. That must be what set off the alarms."  
  
"Really?" Dumbledor asked softly. He turned to the two women. "I'm Professor Albus Dumbledor and who might you.." he stopped and looked at Dawn's companion for a second then continued. "Ladies be?"  
  
"I'm Dawn Summers." Dawn replied.  
  
"I am.." the other started, but Dawn interrupted.  
  
"She's a friend of mine." Dawn ignored an evil glare from the strange woman.  
  
"Does your friend have a name?" Dumbledor pushed.  
  
"Yes she does." Dawn replied. "Now, can you have somebody go get my sister, Buffy, and her friends? We really don't want to look for them ourselves."  
  
Dumbledor smiled and almost laughed then turned to Auror Dawlish. "Do you know where Miss Summers and her friends are?"  
  
"Miss Summers is being held for questioning pending an investigation into the deaths of three alleged Death Eaters this afternoon." Auror Dawlish responded formally.  
  
"Ah, yes. I'd heard there was an incident." Dumbledor turned back to Dawn. "Perhaps you'd like to wait in the visitors' lounge while I have somebody look into the status of your sister?"  
  
Just then the lift doors opened again and six young women stepped out.  
  
The one Dawn had called Kennedy spoke first. "Dawn, you should have seen it, it was so cool the elevator just kept getting bigger to allow everybody in."  
  
One of the girls was carrying three large flat boxes. "Okay, who ordered pizza? You owe me fifteen pounds including what I tipped the delivery guy."  
  
"Ah, that would be me." Auror Dawlish said. He looked at the women, what did they expect to accomplish? He was sure they weren't witches, and there weren't enough of them to really do anything. He looked again; all the new girls were wearing long coats that some were opening to reveal swords and other weapons as they took up perfectly spaced positions on either side of Dawn Summers.  
  
"No," Dawn replied and smiled sweetly at Dumbledor. "I think we'll wait right here while you have somebody go GET my sister and friends. I think ten minutes should be enough time."  
  
Several of the other Wizards stepped forward. "Professor Dumbledor, you should not be playing games with these muggle intruders." A tall middle aged wizard with short salt and pepper hair said as he approached.  
  
"I believe I know how to handle this situation." Dumbledor replied, "Now Auror Dawlish if you will...."  
  
"So do we; by the book." The new arrival said and all of the surrounding wizards raised their wands. "Incarcerous!"  
  
"NO!" Dumbledore yelled but it was too late.  
  
Dawlish watched in shock as the gathered wizards started firing the Incarcerous spell at the intruders. Dawn and her friend where the first hit but the other six girls were also quickly enveloped by thick strands of rope many of them including Dawn quickly lost balance and fell to the floor. One, the odd friend that stood next to Dawn, shrugged and the air around her seemed to shiver and the ropes disappeared. The woman had the wizard who had started the attack by the neck. How could anybody move that fast?  
  
"Release Oriens from your curse or yours will be the first spine I take as a trophy." Her deep even voice resonated with promise. This was no idle threat.  
  
"Don't call me that." Dawn said under her breath then said louder. "Illyria, back off, I'm not hurt."  
  
As Illyria started to release her grip on the wizard more spells were aimed at her. The room began to flash with red streaks as the wizards called "Stupefy!"  
  
Blasts of red hit Illyria and the air around her shimmered like it had before. Her head turned with snap to the source of one of the attacks and she flung the wizard she was holding at her attacker. The man tumbled through the air like a rag doll before hitting the other solidly in the chest causing both to skid across the dark hardwood floor.  
  
"Dawn are you okay?" One of the girls who had been struck by the Incarcerous was already free of her magical ropes and kneeling at Dawn's side. Dawlish heard the sound of swords being drawn as the other girls broke lose of the spell.  
  
"I'm fine but stop Illyria before somebody gets killed." Dawn said.  
  
"Stupefy!" One of the girls fell back to the floor from the impact of the curse. But did the unthinkable, got right back up and charged her attacker. She ducked another Stupefy and landed a solid round house kick to his chin sending him sprawling across the floor.  
  
The girl checking Dawn turned to Dumbledor who hadn't had a chance to react since everything had just happened so quickly "Release Dawn. She can control Illyria."  
  
The girls and wizards were now fighting. The stupefy curse was hitting them but not stopping them. The incarcerous curse was slowing them down but they had already learned to break it and the wizards just couldn't get enough distance between themselves and the girls to put up protection barriers. In the middle of it all Illyria was being bombarded with curses as she tossed wizards left and right.  
  
"Ennervate." Dumbledore said releasing Dawn from the incarcerous spell.  
  
Dawn immediately jumped to her feet but had to duck a stupefy curse that was sent her way. She saw Illyria drop the wizard she was getting ready to toss and head straight for the one that had sent the red curse toward her. The look in the ice blue eyes told Dawn one thing. "NO!" she screamed at the top of her longs.  
  
The hidden magical lighting dimmed for a second then the fighting stopped. Even Illyria hesitated as all of the wands flew from all the wizards' hands and the swords and other weapons of the slayers slammed to the ground as if a giant magnet had been activated.  
  
Dumbledore watched dumbfounded as everybody was neutralized. A group of people were walking down the middle of the atrium toward him. The leader was a young woman dressed like a muggle with red hair that had white streaks pulsating through it. Behind her were two more muggle dressed women. Behind the muggles came Minister Fudge and Director Bones followed by Auror Tonks and that American Auror whose name Dumbledore just could not remember. As they passed, the young women including the one identified as Illyria, followed.  
  
--  
  
Before the group could leave the Ministry Of Magical Law Enforcement's conference room the lights turned blue and started blinking.  
  
"What's going on?" Faith asked looking at the lights.  
  
Wizards and Witches were suddenly running down the hallway to the lifts. Many already had their wands out.  
  
"Somebody has forced entry from the street through the phone box." Director Bones replied as she drew her wand. "Only Death Eaters could and would do such a thing."  
  
"Oh, ah, no they're not." Willow replied.  
  
"What?" Director Bones asked.  
  
"I left a locator spell and override charm on the phone box." Willow clarified. "Dawn's nothing if not prompt."  
  
"That's not possible." Fudge said. "That phone box was designed and cast by our top security wizards."  
  
"Hey don't get me wrong." Willow chirped. "I didn't say it was easy."  
  
"Yea," Faith added. "It must have taken her almost the whole ride down to get the spells right."  
  
Willow leaned over and whispered "You're not helping."  
  
"I still don't see why you're so worried." Director Bones said. "Our Aurors should be able to neutralize your girls, even if they are slayers and not actually hurt anybody."  
  
Buffy stopped and glared on Bones. "I was hit by what, two, three of your Cheerio curses how long did that keep me down?" She headed to the lifts again. "Besides, it's not the girls I'm worried about, it's your people."  
  
"Why our people?" Fudge asked. "Can't your damn slayers control themselves?"  
  
"It's hard to say what a slayer is going to do when she's attacked by somebody who she deems not human. Besides, it's not the slayers that pose the biggest threat; it's my sister's, ah, companion, Illyria."  
  
"Who's Illyria." Tonks asked.  
  
"Dangerous." Buffy replied.  
  
The group rode the lift to the eighth level to find pandemonium. There was a mob of wizards at the far end by the lift to the street and others scattered about as they continued to arrive answering the alarm. Curses were flying left and right and the bright red stupefy seemed to be the most used. The center of attention was a strange woman dressed in a leather body suit with blue streaked hair and blue lines down either side of her face. The curses hitting her just shimmered and dissipated as she flung wizards in all directions.  
  
"By Merlin!" Fudge said. "Is that Illyria?"  
  
"You can always count on my sister to make an entrance." Buffy replied. Buffy couldn't see Dawn but knew she had to be at the far end somewhere.  
  
Suddenly Illyria dropped the wizard she was about to throw and headed toward another.  
  
Dawn's voice cried out. "NO!"  
  
"Stop this now." Buffy commanded.  
  
"It's too late." Fudge said. "It's already out of hand."  
  
"No it's not." Willow said from behind him.  
  
Fudge looked back in time to see Willow step past him as her hair lifted from an unseen wind. He could feel the magic stir around her as she lifted her hands and the lights in the hall flickered and nearly went out.  
  
"That's not possible." He thought. The lights are perpetual magic, they never went out, never dimmed, they just were.  
  
"Accio virga." The words were whispered but the power was in the thought and the will of the caster. Willow spread her hands and released the power of the spell and a streak of white showed briefly in her bright red hair. Wands suddenly flew from the hands of the witches and wizards. Small missiles flew passed the group standing with Willow and clattered against the back wall behind the security station.  
  
"That's not possible." Fudge finally said as he watched the last of the wands land and roll across the floor near him. "Nobody is powerful enough to summon a wand from a trained Wizard when casting. It's just not done."  
  
Willow started walking forward as the wands continued to clatter around them. She drew her hands in and held them out again as she whispered "Stillo arma." The atrium was filled with clattering as the swords and knives dropped from the slayers' hands.  
  
Everybody followed Willow as she walked down the middle of the atrium. She kept her hands by her hips, palms held out and whispered. "Arma permaneo." Effectively gluing the weapons to the floor.  
  
The women followed Willow and the group soon stood in front of the old Wizard dressed in purple robes similar to Hicklock's only without the cowboy theme.  
  
Dawn stood with her arms crossed waiting for her sister. "We were supposed to have dinner." Dawn said in greeting.  
  
"Sorry, I got distracted." Buffy replied sheepishly.  
  
Every witch and wizard stared at the odd muggles for their petty arguing in the middle of such a situation.  
  
"Nice shoes." Dawn replied glancing at the new pumps Buffy was still wearing. "I guess distracted by shopping is enough of an excuse if you bought me something."  
  
"Of course." Buffy smiled and tossed Dawn a small box. She sniffed the air. "Hey, I think our pizza's here."  
  
When Dawn caught the box, the crystal on the bracelet inside glowed green briefly and the plain silver of the bracelet began to change. "Wow! It's beautiful." Dawn said opening the box.  
  
"The crystal is supposed to detect vampires by turning red." Buffy looked at Dawn's expression. It was a nice, simple piece of jewelry, but she didn't expect that reaction. "Let me see it again."  
  
"Here's the cheese and pepperoni." Faith said from the stack of pizzas dropped by the lift door. She folded a piece and shoved it in her mouth.  
  
Dawn held up the bracelet. The simple silver band had turned into a band of intricately woven ropes and Celtic knots. The only thing that was the same was the clear crystal.  
  
"Ah, Willow, is it my imagination, or has that thing changed since I showed it to you?"  
  
"It is different." Willow confirmed. She held out her hand. "Can I see it?"  
  
Dawn dropped it into her hand. As it fell, the designs melted away and it changed back to the plain silver band it was when Buffy bought it. Willow held the bracelet and this time concentrated harder. Her hair swirled about her face from an unfelt breeze. "All I feel is the same Gypsy magic I felt before. Nothing bad or evil."  
  
"Might I have a look?" The old man standing by Dawn asked.  
  
Willow looked at the man. "And you are?"  
  
"Oh, forgive me for not introducing myself." He said sincerely. "I am Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of a local school for young witches and wizards."  
  
"I'm sorry Albus." Dawn said and pointed out the new comers. "That's my sister, Buffy and her best friend Willow."  
  
Dumbledore nodded to Willow who smiled shyly while still glaring at him. Was that possible?  
  
"Over there already on her second piece of pizza is Faith." Dawn pointed to the brunette surrounded by young women. "That's Kennedy approaching us." She pointed to another brunette carrying a pizza box. "And the others are.." Dawn pointed out the remaining girls saying names in quick succession. She then turned to the creature who had returned to the place at Dawn's right. "And this is Illyria."  
  
Illyria glared at Dumbledore. "Are you the master of this strange place? Your disciples have much to learn and little discipline."  
  
"I am just an elder." Dumbledore said as he turned back to Willow, "If I might have my wand back, I could tell you a little more about Miss Summers's bracelet."  
  
"Your wand will come to you now." Willow replied without doing anything obvious.  
  
"Accio" Dumbledore said holding out his hand. A single wand was pulled by an invisible force and flew back across the atrium to him. "Thank you." He looked at the bracelet, "If I may?"  
  
Willow opened her hand palm up show him the bracelet.  
  
Dumbledore tapped it with his wand "Praefero." The plain silver band briefly changed into the ornately carved bracelet Dawn had found in the box. "It is charmed to reveal its design only to its true owner." He said.  
  
"Why wasn't it like that when I bought it?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Did you buy it with the intention of giving it to your sister?"  
  
"Yea."  
  
"Then it knew it wasn't home yet."  
  
Willow started to hand it back to Dawn when a leather clad hand covered the bracelet. Illyria held Willow's hand in place for a second. Willow could briefly feel her strange ancient magic.  
  
"It is safe." Illyria declared and stepped back allowing Dawn to take the bracelet. The clear stone glowed green briefly and the knot and rope designs reappeared.  
  
"Enough pleasantries." Fudge growled trying to assert his authority. "We have injured Wizards to care for and muggle trespassers to deal with."  
  
"Willow, hon," Kennedy said as she approached. "This ones half pineapple, my guess is that you're responsible for this travesty."  
  
"Everybody's okay?" Dawn asked Buffy. "You're sure?"  
  
"We're fine." Buffy replied. "Miss Techno Nerd, just lost track of time and forgot you were coming."  
  
"Hey!" Willow defended as she reached for pizza. "Nobody told me my watch wouldn't work down here."  
  
"Then we'd better send somebody top side to tell Andrew." Dawn said. "He's up there with the rest of the girls and big red."  
  
Buffy nodded and Dawn sent one of the slayers back up the lift.  
  
"And what," Dumbledore asked with curious smile. "Is Big Red?"  
  
"A weapon." Buffy replied.  
  
"Ah."  
  
"Miss Summers." Director Bones said as she approach after checking on the injured wizards. "Perhaps we can move this someplace more comfortable. There is a lecture hall near the security station." She looked at the empty pizza boxes and grumbling young women. "We'll even order more pizza."  
  
--  
  
Albus Dumbledore sat at the head table of the lecture hall watching the muggle women chat and joke with each other. Auror Tonks sat among them entertaining them by changing the length, style and color of her hair at will. "They're all Slayers?" He asked in disbelief after being quickly filled in on the situation by Director Bones.  
  
They were waiting for different reasons. More pizza was top on the list and it was as good an excuse as any. The Ministry personnel were waiting for locator and identification spells to be cast. The same spells that would hold up in court if need be. Were these women really slayers? Would they each be identified as Chosen or just the two? Amos Diggory and Auror Hicklock had returned to the Magical Creatures department to prepare the spells while Minister Fudge had gone to the Department of Mysteries to have them start researching Illyria.  
  
"Apparently all but Miss Rosenberg, Miss Dawn Summers and the one called Illyria." They both looked the young woman sitting next to Dawn Summers. She was no longer the creature they had fought in the atrium. She was now a normal looking young woman with a skirt, thin sweater, pretty long brown hair and glasses. But she didn't seem to be interacting with the other women. If they talked to her she would reply but otherwise she would just look around the room.  
  
Seeing she was being watched, Illyria slid off the table and worked over to Director Bones and Professor Dumbledore. "How ya'll doin'?" she asked cheerily as she approached.  
  
"Miss Illyria," Dumbledore started. "We had a few questions about yourself if you don't mind."  
  
"You can call me Fred." She replied happily. "And I'd be more then happy to tell ya what ever I can."  
  
"Fred?" Bones asked.  
  
The woman's voice deepened and the Texas twang disappeared. "Winifred Burkle was the name of the shell." She replied as her mannerisms stiffened up somewhat.  
  
"Shell?" Dumbledore asked. He was afraid of the answer.  
  
"When I was summoned, my misguided human acolytes chose this shell for me to inhabit." She responded. "I can still access the memories and essence of Winifred Burkle."  
  
Director Bones nearly choked. "You mean these slayers killed a woman to create you?"  
  
"These female warriors were not involved in summoning me."  
  
Dumbledore noticed one of the slayers point out to Dawn that Illyria or 'Fred' was here talking to them. Dawn was immediately part of the group.  
  
"Hey, Illyria, why don't you leave these two nice wizards be." Dawn said. "I'm sure they have enough to worry about because of the slayers and all."  
  
"It was a wizard named Vale who killed my first guide." Illyria responded. "I ripped his spine from his back and used it to hang the remains of his shattered decrepit corpse from the chandelier."  
  
"Thanks, that was an image I could have lived without." Dawn responded. She lightly touched the woman's back and escorted her away.  
  
Amos Diggory came in and stood across from Director Bones and Professor Dumbledore. "The spells are cast." He said and laid out a map of the ministry in front of them. "There are two Chosen Ones" He pointed to two dots blink white and red. "And the rest are Slayers." He pointed to the red dots.  
  
"That is enough." Professor Dumbledore said quietly. "These women are potentially dangerous to our world. We need to tell them about the Tenets and forge a treaty with them. Perhaps we can enlist their help in our war; it's their war too whether we want to admit it or not."  
  
**To be continued.............**


	12. Bossy Enough Already

**Part 12  
"Bossy Enough Already"**

** By OldScout**  
  
Minister Fudge finally returned to the conference room to see Director Bones, Professor Dumbledore and Amos Diggory looking at the locator map. He stared at the map with them for a few minutes before asking "What are we looking at?"  
  
"The white dots are The Chosen, and the red are slayers." Amos answered.  
  
"Why are the white spots blinking red?"  
  
"Because the Chosen are slayers as well, Minister." Dumbledore said. He leaned over and addressed the younger man softly. "Cornelius, we need to lay our cards on the table. These women can be a tremendous asset in our battle but we need to be up front with them."  
  
"So, Wiz's what's the what?" Buffy Summers asked as she jumped up and sat on the table next to the map. "Oh, pretty lights." She said looking at the map.  
  
The Wizards exchanged looks over the woman's apparent ignorance.  
  
"Looks like a locator spell to me." Buffy continued. She smiled. "Making sure we're slayers, eh?"  
  
"Apparently there's a difference between being a slayer and being chosen." Professor Dumbledore replied.  
  
"Yep, I guess now there is." Buffy agreed  
  
"How exactly was Miss Rosenberg able to accomplish this?" Dumbledore asked looking at Willow as she shared a laugh with the girls.  
  
Buffy swung her legs back and forth under the edge of the table and smiled. "She did a spell."  
  
"Of course." Dumbledore turned to Minister Fudge. "Perhaps it is time to make our proposal to Miss Summers."  
  
"Are you kidding?" Fudge replied. "She's one of the bossiest people I've ever met, what's she going to be like when she learns the truth?"  
  
"Ah, hello?" Buffy said. "Sitting right here." She crossed her arms. "You're right, Alby, I think it is time for you guys to tell me what's going on and all about the Big Bad you're all so scared of."  
  
Minster Fudge, Director Bones and Professor Dumbledore exchanged looks. Fudge was frowning and Bones face was blank. Dumbledore finally said. "To understand everything, you need to know something about the history of the Wizarding world."  
  
Buffy jumped off the table and called out. "Okay, everybody, it's time for class to begin. Take your seats and settle down." She clapped her hands a couple of times and motioned to the auditorium seats and took one herself front and center.  
  
After getting everybody seated Buffy waived her hand at Professor Dumbledore. "Okay, Alby, we're ready."  
  
Dumbledore stood and walked in front of the table. "As I was telling Miss Summers, to understand The Chosen One's standing in the Wizarding world, you have to understand some of our history." He looked at Buffy who was slouched in her chair but watching him intently. "A long time ago, when the Romans were just starting to abandon Britain, there was no Ministry of Magic or any formal separate community of wizards.  
  
"Those people who found themselves magically inclined would seek each other out and live in small groups sometimes known as covens."  
  
"Oh, Oh." Willow was enthusiastically raising her hand.  
  
"Yes, Miss Rosenberg."  
  
"But aren't covens generally formed by wiccans and other users of earth magic?"  
  
"You're right, but back then it was a term used for any groups of magic users, real or imagined. Now the problem was, and in many cases still is, that many non-magical people considered anything or anybody they didn't understand to be evil." As he said this, Dumbledore couldn't stop himself from glancing at the pretty young woman the others were now referring to as 'Fred'.  
  
"People could be accused, tried, and executed for witchcraft or heresy. For real wizards and witches there really was no threat. They could easily remove themselves from custody or avoid it all together. The tragedy was really for the muggles who were accused and executed for so many other reasons mostly political and personal and almost never actually attempting to practice any kind of real magic.  
  
"So it was that as we officially do now, back then Wizarding folk lived outside rules and laws of normal humans, or muggles as they became known." He looked at the young women sitting around him and thought of the legacy of bravery and sacrifice they represented. "This was all well and good as long as the Wizarding fold did not draw attention on themselves or flaunt the muggles laws in their faces."  
  
The old professor paced across the room a couple of times. "There was a time when a group of young wizards asked themselves why they were hiding from muggles. They were obviously superior to muggles and in the logic of the time, anybody who was inferior most have been put on this earth to serve their superiors. These young men soon took to preying on muggles, terrorizing them, stealing from them and abusing them in many shameful and horrible ways."  
  
"Why didn't the other witches and wizards do something about it?" Tonks asked.  
  
Dumbledore looked at the young Auror, long bright blue hair hung about her shoulders and was slightly obscuring her face. She shouldn't be here, this was not information generally shared with young wizards and witches, even Aurors; but when Buffy had chased one of the younger slayers from a chair next to her so Tonks could have a seat the decision was made. "What would they do? There were no Wizarding laws, they didn't think of themselves as a separated community, more like clubs or loosely formed guilds. If they associated with these wizards even to reprimand them they would be seen as being part of them. Remember, they still mostly considered themselves part of the muggle world just with extra talents, like artists or musicians.  
  
"A lot of havoc was reaped and terrible things were done. Things started to get really bad as more persecution of alleged witches took place while the truly evil laughed and continued their wicked ways. There was, however, one answer, one protector, one person who made those who lived outside the laws of normal people answer the evil." Albus Dubmledore looked at the room of slayers. "One girl chosen to protect humanity from evil."  
  
"Watch out." One of the girls said.  
  
"There's going to be some ass whooping now." Another added.  
  
He watched the girls grinning at each other giving quick "high fives" he believed the gesture was called.  
  
He continued. "In time an old man that was a form of holy man for his time showed up in the small town that had fallen under the thumb of these wizards. With him was his ward, a teenage girl schooled since birth in the teachings of his god and the arts of war and combat. She had recently come into her full calling and was anxious to do the work of her calling and her God." The room full of young women stared waiting for more. "This girl was trained to fight probably as you are today, if something is evil and not human, kill it; a very simple rule for a very violent time. It didn't take long for the Chosen One to find the evil wizards that had been terrorizing and controlling the town. In fact, it is said that some paid her a visit, looking to take advantage of a fresh young girl."  
  
Dumbldore looked over the rims of his small wire framed glasses. "They learned that night, as we learned tonight that a slayer is quite resistant to Wizarding magic. The three were found dead the next morning. No one shed a tear or worried about the killer except a few in the Wizarding community, mostly their parents." He took a few steps away from the girls and turned back. "The young slayer was now convinced that these Wizards were real; they had tried to do magic on her and had hexed her watcher. The next night she went to the small group of cabins outside of town where the three where known to live. There she found the rest of their group including many things they had taken from the local community and several young women whom they'd spelled and stolen from their families. There was no doubt these girls were there against their will. It is said she witnessed some extremely depraved activity and the Wizarding world fully admits that these wizards were some of the vilest creatures ever produced by the Wizarding community before or since."  
  
Sitting on the edge of the table, he looked out at the room. "She killed them all. It was no contest, a slayer against humans, for without their magic that is all they were, all we are. Against the Chosen One the magic didn't work, but a slayer's strength, speed, and sword works against just about anything.  
  
"Afterward, the girls now freed of the curses that bound them swore an angel from God came down to smite the foul creatures that had enslaved them. The blood soaked cabins were burned with the bodies left where they fell and the remaining timbers scattered and buried. The town folk and local Wizarding folk all thought it was over. They were wrong because the young slayer was a child of her time and a dutiful servant of her God. She had no clue that the man who raised and trained her did so without telling anyone else in his order. He had come to his robes late in life after being initiated into the organization of Watchers. He saw the girl as the weapon of God and trained her serve to both callings as one.  
  
"She was a child of her time and she was taught that witches were evil and she had found proof. Witches were real and they were evil." Dumbledore stood again and paced a few steps. "That is when the war really started."  
  
"War, what war?" Tonks asked.  
  
"The Chosen One and the wizards." Dumbledore replied. "Witches and Wizards were real, and they were evil. Or so the Chosen One decided." He turned to Buffy. "Miss Summers, what do you do to something you know is evil and who normal humans can't handle?"  
  
"I slay it." She responded.  
  
"That's what this slayer did, she saw evil and she slew it. The only problem was that she saw all witches and wizards as evil. The wizards were nearly helpless and started using magic to really hide themselves, not just stay separate, but hide. It wasn't enough, the slayer found them. Finally they the found or developed new curses; curses powerful enough to stop the slayer. Soon there was a killing curse, one that would kill a muggle with a word. It is said it took three killing curses to stop the slayer. Finally the horror was over."  
  
"Why haven't I ever heard of this?" Tonks asked; her eyes wide in disbelief. "Nobody ever mentioned this in Wizarding History class."  
  
"Most people don't know about it." Minister Fudge growled.  
  
"It wasn't over. Was it?" Faith asked.  
  
"No, Miss, Ah, Faith." Dumbledore stumbled. "It wasn't, it was just beginning."  
  
"What? Why? How?" Tonks asked in disbelief.  
  
"Tell her." Buffy said quietly.  
  
"When I was Chosen." Faith replied. "I was drawn to Sunnydale, not just to continue the fight and protect the hellmouth, but to avenge Kendra. I don't think I even gave it conscious thought, I just knew what I had to do."  
  
"So the next Slayer was Chosen." Dumbledore said. "And more Wizards started to die." He looked at the group staring silently at him. "Over the next five years countless Wizards and their families died in the silent war and at least six Slayers. Not only that, but as the war between the Wizarding community and the lone protector of the muggle community conitnued, the real evil started spreading. For with the Chosen One taking all of her time to hunt down wizards and witches, she had no time for the demons and other forces of darkness."  
  
"How did it end?" Dawn asked as the Slayers sat there in disbelief.  
  
"Finally some leaders of the Wizarding world were able to track down the Slayer and her watcher, a very enlightened Roman, and forge a treaty." Dumbledore looked back at the other senior staff. "These Wizards promised to create a Wizarding community totally separate from the muggle community and create laws and appoint Wizarding Knights to protect muggles from abuses by wizards."  
  
"You mean you're entire community was created because of the Slayer?" Willow asked.  
  
"Not really." Dumbledore responded. "We were already living apart and hiding from the much larger muggle community, but the treaty with the Watcher forced the Wizards to formalize their laws and set standards of behavior for our people." He looked at the room as the girls took this in.  
  
"That's not all. Is it?" Buffy asked.  
  
"No, Miss Sumners, it isn't." Dumbledore paced the room again. "You see the Roman Watcher in charge of the current Slayer was a wise and educated man and he could see that the more organized the Wizarding community became, the greater the potential for abuse. He needed to be sure that there was always someone who could protect the muggles from the Wizards should they choose to prey on the muggles again or worse start making laws to control muggles, effectively taking over the muggle community. He insisted that if he were to agree to keep Slayers away from the Wizarding community and let them look after their own house, the Wizards must agree that should the Chosen One ever be brought into a disagreement with the Wizards, then they would acquiesce to her decisions."  
  
"Acquiesce?" Faith asked.  
  
"Submit or Consent to her decisions." Director Bones answered; but just got a blank stare from Faith.  
  
"It means the Slayer was in charge." Willow said with a smile. "That's it, isn't it? That's why you've all been ready to burst a seam tonight because Buffy's in charge and you don't want to admit it."  
  
"Way cool." Faith said with a grin. "Way to go B. Now you get to boss around even more people."  
  
"Great." Dawn moaned. "As if she isn't bossy enough already."  
  
Professor Dumbledore looked at the room. They didn't get it, it could be argued the laws applied to all slayers but they applied to Buffy and Faith for sure. Yet they immediately put the role solely on Miss Summers. Why? Was she that well liked? Was she really that good of a leader? Or was that since she was the oldest and most experienced they just naturally let her take charge. If the Wizarding community did the unthinkable and started a relationship with the Chosen One...s. Then he figured he'd find out in due time.  
  
"Perhaps it would be easiest to show you how the law is worded." Dumbledore said and pointed his wand at the blank wall behind Minister Fudge and Director Bones. "Exsertus exertus lex leqis." Words appeared on the wall. "These are the core of the Secret Tenets of the Wizarding world."

* * *

**_Ministry Of Magic: Primary Secret Tenets: (Modern Translation and clarification; 1936)_**

_In order to protect future generations of the Wizarding Community,   
1) In order to peacefully co-exist with the non-magical (here after referred to as muggle) community, The Ministry of Magic (here after referred to as "The Ministry") shall make no law affecting and take no actions, challenging or contradicting decisions or actions taken by the Chosen One (here after referred to as "The Slayer") in her role as it pertains to protecting herself, the muggle community and all others The Slayer deems worthy of protection.   
  
2) In order to remove the burden from The Slayer of policing and enforcing the lawful behavior of the magical community toward the muggle community, a Department of Magical Law Enforcement will be established, funded, and maintained by The Ministry.  
_  
--  
  
**To be continued.....**


	13. Triskaidekaphobia

**Part 13  
Triskaidekaphobia  
By OldScout  
**

**--**

**To Be Continued......**


	14. Tough Decisions

**Part 14  
"Tough Decisions"  
By OldScout**  
  
That was it. Willow stared at the tenets. Legally the Ministry Of Magic couldn't hold Buffy for killing the Wizards. In fact they shouldn't have held her one minute after figuring out she was the Slayer and that was probably about five minutes after Billy Bob got here. She looked around the room. Where had he gotten off to anyway? Willow wondered what did this have to do with her own use of magic. She tried to remember what Hicklock had said and how he'd acted. She looked at the first tenet again.  
  
"..shall make no law affecting ... challenging or contradicting decisions or actions taken by the Chosen One...deems worthy of protection".  
  
She kept repeating it to herself, how did this affect her? Is this why the American Ministry didn't come for her when she "lost it"? Did they consider her off limits because of Buffy? When Buffy accepted her contrition; was that the end of it? Was that why she was never approached by the Wizarding community? She was left to learn on her own because of her friendship with the Chosen One. How dare they not trust her or Buffy, Willow fumed. By the time she started experimenting with Magic, the American Ministry should have known Buffy well enough to trust she wouldn't start killing them just on general principles. Of course now Willow wasn't quite so sure since it had been a strange couple of years.  
  
"So," Buffy said after contemplating the tenets for herself. "I've wasted my whole afternoon here and you almost had a blood bath for nothing."  
  
"What!" Minister Fudge yelped.  
  
"You knew who or what I was pretty early on, or suspected it." Buffy said. "Yet you've kept me cooped up here this whole time making me miss dinner with my sister." Buffy stood and approached him. "How many people almost got killed tonight because of you?"  
  
Minister Fudge cringed from the look on Buffy's face and instinctively reached for his wand.  
  
"Touch it and I'll shove it up you're a...."  
  
"Buffy!!" Willow yelled. "Back off."  
  
Turning to the door, Buffy said. "Let's go get my stuff and get out of here." All the girls stood.  
  
"You can't leave." Fudge ordered. "We have three dead Wizards, breaking and entering on Ministry property, use of unlicensed magic...."  
  
"Quiet." Willow whispered, stopping Fudge's rant. He kept talking by no voice was coming out.  
  
"Thanks, Red." Faith said. "I was about to rip his tongue out."  
  
As Faith spoke, Dawn and 'Fred' were walking by and heard the comment.  
  
"There's hope for some of the muck yet." 'Fred' observed.  
  
"We've talked about this." Dawn replied. "You've got stop to calling the slayers muck."  
  
"One day I will be your guide, Oriens." 'Fred' said. "Then you will understand."  
  
"Don't call me that."  
  
"Please, Ladies, don't leave yet." Dumbledore said. "Minister Fudge does not speak for the whole Wizarding community."  
  
"He doesn't seem to speak for anybody right now." Kennedy smirked as she put an arm around Willow's waist.  
  
"Please, ladies, sit back down." Director Bones pleaded. "Minister Fudge meant no harm he just wants to protect the Wizarding community and as you now know, we have reason to be cautious when it comes to the Chosen One. There a number of political issues he must deal with."  
  
Fudge was now totally red and apparently yelling at the top of his lungs. He even pounded soundlessly on the table.  
  
"What kind of spell did you put on him?" Dumbledore asked with a smile as he looked at the minister who had just realized nobody could hear him.  
  
"Not on him, I put a baffling spell around him." Willow replied. She thought for a second "I don't generally put spells on people. Do you? That can be pretty dangerous."  
  
"We do train our children to control their magic." Dumbledore responded. "It really reduces the risk of miss-cast spells, plus we have specialists to reverse unintended side effects of magic."  
  
Willow could tell there was a lot left unsaid about the Wizarding world. She looked around the room. "The magic is a great gift, but your people seem to take it for granted. The first thing we teach a new slayer is to treat her gift with respect, because if she doesn't, people will start dieing." She turned to Buffy who was waiting at the door. "Let's hear them out, they need our help whether they want to admit or not."  
  
"You know about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Director Bones asked in disbelief.  
  
"Oh, yea." Willow smiled. "You guys have some big bad you want help with too."  
  
--  
  
Buffy tried her best to contain her laughter. After Minister Fudge realized Willow had silenced him she thought he was going to have stroke. He sat or stood in place yelling at Willow to remove the spell which she refused to do, then he started for the door to get help when he realized the baffle was stationary and all he had to do was walk away from it. The other Wizards in the room were doing a very good job of not laughing, but the others didn't even try to not laugh.  
  
Traditionally in every conference room, the middle of the head table was the head of the table. Minister Fudge stared at his spot in the middle of the table. Somehow without a wand the red headed witch had cast a charm around that place of the table. Any sound coming from the spot could not be heard by the rest of room. He was convinced now that this girl must be related to that horrid Weasley clan. She must have somehow spirited a charm on to the table and activated it with a word. Now she refused to deactivate the charm or move it forcing him to sit a couple of seats away.  
  
As he waited for their guests to get back to their seats, Professor Dumbledore studied Miss Rosenberg and the spell she had cast. Cornelius thought that it was an object she'd activated, but it wasn't. The young woman had cast a complex spell around the Minister with a thought and word. It was the kind of spell that might be assigned to a Witch or Wizard to create and learn for their seventh year finals exams and most would fail. When the woman used magic, he could feel it around her like he could from any powerful old Witch or Wizard. But when she wasn't casting, she felt like a muggle. Her occlemancy skill must be extremely advanced.  
  
"Okay, Fudgey." Buffy said as 'Fred' and Dawn finally wondered back to their seats. "You have our attention again. Tell me what you have in mind."  
  
"Apparently some people in here think you and your, ah, Slayers might be of use to us." Fudge growled. How dare this girl talk to him like that, who did she think she was he rambled to himself, The Chos.... He stopped his train of thought.  
  
That's exactly who she was, The Chosen One. It was her job to protect the muggles from the Wizarding world if the Wizards failed to do so themselves. They had been failing, and muggles and wizards were dieing. If they hadn't discovered each other now, then they would have soon enough. Perhaps even the next time Voldemort attacked. If this girl had found a bunch of evil Wizards killing people, the hunt would be on and they would have risked repeating a bloody history. They still did. There were a lot of Wizards who weren't Voldemort supporters but still considered themselves above muggles. If some muggle had shown up looking to exact muggle justice....he stopped. That was it; that was why they feared the Chosen One. She lived outside all laws. The muggle laws couldn't hold her and Wizards weren't allowed and would have difficulty as well. There was a reason why they called her "The Slayer", she was Judge, Jury and Executioner all rolled up in one and she had an army. He started to sweat.  
  
"Minister is everything alright?" Director Bones inquired after Minister Fudge fell silent and started to sweat. "Would you like us to get the medi- witch on duty tonight?"  
  
"I'm fine." Minister Fudge finally said. He turned back to Miss Summers. "I was thinking that perhaps our two organizations could work together, perhaps draw up an agreement of understanding."  
  
Buffy stared at Fudge then back at the other Ministry personnel, finally looking Tonks whose platinum white short spiked hair looked dangerous on its own. She looked back at Fudge. "I'm listening."  
  
"I understand from talking to yourself, your associates and Auror Hicklock that you have opened offices and training centers in several countries." Fudge said. "Well, the Wizarding world has methods of travel that could allow travel between offices very quickly."  
  
Buffy looked at the Minister. She could tell he was doing something he did not want to do. He was offering use of Ministry facilities to a bunch of muggles and did not like it. In return, he was going to ask for help with something and he didn't want to ask muggles for help with a Wizarding problem. "That could be useful." Buffy said cautiously.  
  
"It is also my impression that one of your biggest assets is Miss Rosenberg." With this statement everybody turned and looked at Willow.  
  
Dumbledore watched as one of the most powerful and talented magic users he'd have met blushed, sank into her seat and leaned into the young woman called Kennedy. How could this shy young woman have come to posses so much power? Now he knew why though she was obviously the smartest, most level headed and one of the most dangerous members of the group she wasn't the leader. She was shy and actually introverted probably preferred being alone or with just one or two friends. If it wasn't for Miss Summers's friendship Willow probably never would have had more than one or two friends or acquaintances.  
  
"What about Willow?" Buffy asked. The tone of her voice was obviously defensive about her friend.  
  
"It's just that she can only do so much." Fudge replied. "If our organizations had a relationship, you may find a few Witches or Wizards interested in joining your fight against the, ah, darkness." Fudge tried real hard not to look at the young Auror sitting next the Miss Summers. "Tonight you proved that slayers and witches can make a formidable team. Though I don't know anybody with the skills Miss Rosenberg has given us a glimpse of tonight, a well trained Wizarding Witch or Wizard might still be extremely useful to you."  
  
"This all sounds good for us." Buffy said cautiously. "So what are you expecting to get? Control of Slayers? A little extra muscle? An easy way to keep track of our organization? What?"  
  
Face getting redder, Fudge could barely maintain the remaining threads of his composure. He was trying to open the door to a historical new alliance and that buffoon of an American girl just a few years out of school was making paranoid accusations. He thought a different person might have better luck. Gritting his teeth, he turned to Director Bones and through clenched teeth said. "Tell her about Him."  
  
"We have a problem we need help with." Director Bones finally said. "A dark Wizard we thought defeated many years ago is rebuilding his strength and recruiting new followers. Those men you fought today are called Death Eaters. They are follows of the Dark Lord."  
  
"Does this mysterious Big Bad have a name?" Faith interrupted.  
  
"People are so afraid of him nobody says his name." Tonks supplied. "They just call him 'You Know Who' or 'He Who Must Not Be Named' or some other thing that gets the meaning across."  
  
"What's his name?" Dawn asked.  
  
"Yea, something like that." Tonks said.  
  
"No," Dawn smiled. "I mean, what is his name?"  
  
"His name is Lord Voldemort." Dumbledore finally said. "His name was Tom Riddle, but that Wizard is long gone. All that remains is Voldemort."  
  
"So, what?" Buffy asked. "You want to take a hit out him or something? Cause we're not for hire, that's not how we work."  
  
"We can take care of Him ourselves." Minister Fudge replied. "I knew this wasn't a good idea."  
  
"If that's the case then what do you want from us?" Faith asked.  
  
Professor Dumbledore looked to Minister Fudge and Director Bones. "If I may?"  
  
Fudge nodded.  
  
"I assume, ladies." He began turning back to the young women. "That you have dealt with a prophecy or two in your tenure as slayers?"  
  
"A few." Buffy replied.  
  
"There's a prophecy, which states that Voldemort can only be defeated by one person, a boy at my school." Dumbledore said. He looked at Faith, having been told her last name by Minister Fudge. "Perhaps you've heard of him, Harry Potter?"  
  
Faith looked puzzled. "No, why would I have heard of him?"  
  
Willow started choking trying not to laugh.  
  
"What's so funny?" Faith glared.  
  
"Don't you remember the name you gave them?" Willow said with a smile and started laughing again.  
  
"Yeah, it was Faith," she hesitated and thought then grinned. "No wonder everybody had trouble saying my name."  
  
"You told them your name is Faith Potter?" Buffy asked. "Where in the hell did you get that name from?"  
  
Faith shrugged. "An old sign for a pottery shop up on the street."  
  
All of Faith's friends were now laughing or snickering.  
  
"Why did you give a fake name? What other lies have you told us?" Minister Fudge asked with a frown.  
  
"If you knew my parents, you wouldn't want to use their name either." Faith replied.  
  
"We haven't been lying to you Minister, which is more then we can say about you." Buffy said. "Faith's current last name is always a running joke with us. It changes so often we don't even notice it anymore." She nodded sideways at Tonks whose hair was now shoulder length with stripes of green, blue and pink. "Sort of like her hair."  
  
"Auror Tonks," Director Bones said sternly. "It would be best stop entertaining the younger slayers during the meeting."  
  
"Yes Ma'am." Tonks replied as her hair shortened to its normal length and turned a dark almost normal looking red as she slouched in her chair.  
  
"Ah, man, but that was sooo cool." One of the younger girls said.  
  
"Yea, and this is sooo boring." Another added.  
  
"Don't worry," Dawn said. "We'll be going home in a little bit."  
  
"So what about this prophecy with this Harry Potter kid?" Buffy asked trying to get them back on topic.  
  
"Right now." Dumbledore started again. "Our job is to train and protect young Mister Potter so that when the time finally comes, he is ready."  
  
"I'm not big on prophecy fulfillment myself." Buffy said.  
  
"Yea." Willow added. "We've found that most prophecies are either self fulfilling or can only be interpreted to fit events that have already taken place."  
  
"We understand that." Dumbledore agreed. "But this prophecy has taken on a life of its own. If Mr. Potter is defeated by Voldemort it would be devastating to the Wizarding community and give him a major foot hold amongst the elite pure blooded Wizards and Witches."  
  
"We were hoping to recruit you, your organization, to join us in our fight against him." Minister Fudge took over. "This fight is yours as well. Lord Voldemort wants to rid the world of muggles and mixed blood witches and wizards. He says it's wrong for the Wizarding community to hide from the muggles like rats hiding in the shadows."  
  
Staring at the wall and listening to this story of Lord Voldemort Buffy thought about the events of the day. How the bureaucracy tip toed around those guys that had attacked them and some even want to blame her for the death of that child. "No," She finally said. "This is your fight." She pointed to the Tenets. "It says right there, your whole reason for existing is to protect the muggle community from wizards like your talking about. Instead, you coddle them and pretend they didn't just try to kill a guest in your community and one of your Aurors. You know you were even considering charging me with murder though you knew it was self defense. Do you wonder why you can't handle these creatures? It's because you've put politics and your own continued position of power and comfort over the job that needs to get done."  
  
"How dare you speak to me that way!" Fudge stood face red, knuckles pressing down on the table.  
  
"I dare, Minister Fudge, because it's the truth." Buffy said without emotion. "You ask me to put my life, my families' lives, my friends' lives and the lives of teenage girls who've been entrusted in my care on the line when you're not ready to do what ever it takes to get the same job done yourself. As long as maintaining you're comfy little job is more important than doing what has to be done, don't come to me looking for help."  
  
"Don't you DARE lecture me on how to do MY JOB!" Fudge yelled. "What in the name of MERLIN do you know about making tough decisions?! What's the toughest decision you've ever made? What color nail polish to wear or what shoes look best on the dance floor or some foolish thing like that?"  
  
"Actually," Buffy whispered. "It was what outfit to bury my mother in."  
  
Fudge dropped into his chair.  
  
"The decision to face The Master, knowing the prophecy said I was going to die was easy. The decision to send the man I loved to hell to save the world was easy." Buffy stood and approached Fudge. She continued to speak barely above a whisper. "The decision to sacrifice myself to save my sister was easy. The decision to forgive my best friend for her love was easy. The decision to lead a bunch of normal girls in a war against the first was easy. Burying the dead in my back yard was hard. Loosing girls in ambushes and having them killed before they ever got to me was hard. You know, deciding to end the waiting and lead those girls right down into hell was relatively easy. Watching them die before and after Willow's spell was cast, that was hard."  
  
Buffy stood directly in front of Minister Fudge. "I dare lecture you on how to do your job because apparently you have one thing to do and you're not doing it. Let me tell you this, if we have to get involved, it will be too late for you. If your little problem spills into my world, I'm not just going after what's his name; I'm coming after you too." She pointed at the wall. "Your job is to protect non-magical people from the Wizarding community." Buffy pointed her finger at him emphasizing each of the following words. "So. I. Don't. Have. To."  
  
"Please, Miss Summers." Professor Dumbledore said. "I apologize for how you were treated today."  
  
"It wasn't your doing." Buffy replied.  
  
"Yes, but as an elder in the community and a member of the Wizengamot I still feel a reasonability for the behavior of the ministry." Dumbledore watched Fudge glare at him but, of course, he didn't care. This girl was absolutely right. The only reason nobody had actually done anything about Voldemort was because of the politics and protectionism around the old pure bloods where he drew his followers. "We still have an unprecedented opportunity to create a relationship between your organization and the Wizarding community.  
  
"I don't know." Buffy said after thinking for a few minutes. "We really don't know anything about your community, though you apparently know quite a bit about us." She looked at the women sitting around her. "Perhaps there is some way for you to teach some us about the Wizarding community so we know who and what we'd be helping."  
  
"Perhaps you could visit the school." Dumbledore suggested. "We're used to teaching muggle born witches and wizards about the Wizarding world." The old man's eyes gleamed. "You could come to the school, sit in on some classes, maybe do some guest teaching."  
  
She seemed to think about it for a few seconds. "I can't. There's just too much to do to rebuild the council, find new slayers and everything else."  
  
"Perhaps somebody else," Dumbledore looked to Willow and Faith.  
  
"Willow has to help with finding the slayers, and Faith leaves to take over the New York station tomorrow."  
  
"I'll go." A very familiar voice said from the middle of the room.  
  
"What?" Buffy looked at her sister.  
  
"I'll go, sounds like fun."  
  
"What about school?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Ah, hello, it's a school." Dawn looked at Dumbledore. "It is a school right, regular classes and everything? Unless I'm too old, or too young."  
  
"I guess you're seventeen or eighteen." Dumbledore stated. With a nod from Dawn he continued. "Then you're the same age as the upper classmen; the ones in their sixth and seventh years."  
  
"What kind of classes do you teach?" Buffy asked. "Is it anything that would be worth while? She's not a witch, so if you're teaching how to do magic what would she take."  
  
"Hey, I've done spells before." Dawn defended.  
  
"Simple Earth spells, honey." Willow interjected. "Anybody with a sharp mind and good language skills might have been able to cast those spells."  
  
"Well, lets see." Professor Dumbledore said. "We offer potions."  
  
"Chemistry." Dawn replied.  
  
"Muggle Studies."  
  
"Social Studies."  
  
"Divinations."  
  
"What?"  
  
Dumbledore thought of the best way to explain to a muggle girl. "Fortune telling and Prophecies."  
  
"Psychology and Watcher Training One oh One."  
  
"History of Wizarding."  
  
"History or Literature."  
  
"And many others." Dumbledore finally said.  
  
"See, I could do it. I'll be fun."  
  
Buffy looked at Dumbledore.  
  
"She's more than welcome." He said. "She'll be fine."  
  
"I have been interested in seeing how these creatures train their spawn to use their droplets magic." Illyria said from next to Dawn.  
  
Professor Dumbledore looked at the creature that looked like a pleasant intelligent young woman. "I don't know how well you'd fit in."  
  
"Oh," Buffy smiled. "I think she'll be fine." She looked at 'Fred'. "You will behave yourself like we've discussed, right?"  
  
"I have agreed."  
  
"See." Buffy smiled. "Everything will be just fine."  
  
---Finis---  
  
Don't miss Faith's adventures in New York in  
**"Bump In The Night"**  
  
Coming Soon: Dawn visits Hogwarts in  
**"The Key, the Smurf, and the Boy Who What?"**  
  
Buffy, Willow, and Tonks take a walk on the dark side of the Wizarding world in  
**"Judge, Jury, Executioner"**  
  
Xander visits LA to find his new older brother in  
**"Who Is William Harris"**


	15. Epilogue

**Part 15  
"Epilogue"  
By OldScout**  
  
"Gryfffindor!!!" The old hat called out after a long silent discussion with the wearer.  
  
A small smattering of applause rang out around the room, most coming from the Gryffindor table itself. Dawn took off the hat and handed it to Professor McGonagall.  
  
"Miss Winifred Burkle."  
  
Dawn stopped and looked back at the older witch. "Ah, she doesn't need to do it, she'll just stay with me."  
  
"Nonsense, young lady, everybody gets sorted."  
  
Dawn's slightly older looking friend walked up to the stool, glared at the Witch and the strange hat she was holding.  
  
"Just sit down on the stool, dear." McGonagall said.  
  
"Okey, dokey." Fred said with a smile and jumped onto the stool.  
  
Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on Fred's head. That's when the screaming started.  
  
It took several seconds of ear piercing shrieks from the hat before Minerva snatched it from the young woman's head. It kept screaming. Kids were covering their ears teachers were starting to stand in alarm, and Fred continued sitting on the stool with the same sweet smile on her face.  
  
The hat continued to scream as Minerva tried to cover its mouth as she rushed it out of the great hall. Its screams could still be heard echoing back down the hall.  
  
"Gryfffindor." Professor Dumbledore said weakly.  
  
--  
  
The old wizard sat straight up in bed, sweat running down his forehead, his wand clutched in his hand. He looked across the room to see the old sorting hat sleeping serenely on its shelf.  
  
"That would not be a good idea." He muttered.  
  
**--Finis--**


End file.
